Tonight was the first pickup night for our 8-week autumn Moors End Farm CSA. The basket was a treasure chest. Red raspberries, tomatoes, pattypan and yellow summer squash, hot peppers, green peppers, beets with greens, carrots, corn, parsley, basil, rosemary, and beautiful rainbow chard. The latter excited me the most. So that is the recipe I would like to share. It was wonderful. Fresh and rich-tasting.

Garlicky Greens

modified from Heidi Swanson’s 101 Cookbooks blog

1 large bunch of chard
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
sea salt
5 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
crushed red pepper flakes (or chopped, fresh red pepper)

To de-stem each leaf of chard/kale, grab the main stalk in one hand and strip the leaf from the stem all the way up with the other. Tear the big leaves into bite-sized pieces. Wash the greens in a big bowl (or sink) full of clean water, rinsing and swishing to rinse away any stubborn grit and dirt. Drain, rinse again, and set aside. Chop the stems into bite-size, colorful pieces, and wash as well. Keep separate.

Hold off cooking the greens until just before eating. Then, in a large skillet heat the olive oil. Add a couple big pinches of salt and the stems and saute for 1-2 minutes first. Then add the greens. Stir continuously until their color gets bright green, and they just barely start to collapse – two, three, maybe four minutes, depending on how hot your pan is and how much structure your greens have. Then, just thirty seconds before you anticipate pulling the skillet off of the heat, stir in the garlic. Saute a bit, remove the pan from the heat, stir in the Parmesan, and add a big pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. Taste, add a bit of salt if needed, and serve immediately if not sooner.

Email Sam and Rachel for more info about the Moors End Farm CSA (sslosek@earthlink.net).