Swiss chard really is the gift that keeps on giving. Even when I think I have nothing in the house to eat, I can pull together a delicious meal with just a few leaves of chard and a few pantry items. We usually always have some type of pasta on hand. As there are only two of us in the house, one package makes several meals quite easily. Tonight, it was whole wheat fusilli. I love this, as the curly shape helps to hug whatever sauce there is to the pasta dish.
The other ingredients I had on hand were:
- a little bit of white onion, and a little bit of red onion
- garlic cloves, about 6
- red pepper flakes, one little packet that came with a pizza (1 Tbl?)
- Greek yogurt, about 1/2 cup?
- grated Parmesan cheese
- olive oil
- about 2 Tbl butter
- freshly grated nutmeg
- Kosher salt & freshly ground black pepper
Sauté thinly sliced onion in olive oil; add the chopped garlic. Add the coarsely chopped Swiss chard, seasoning with salt & pepper, red pepper flakes and grated nutmeg. Cook only until chard is wilted.
Cook the pasta, about one minute less than it states on the package directions. Add some of the starchy cooking water to chard (this will be the base for the sauce).
Cook briefly, to reduce and slightly thicken, then stir in the yogurt (more yogurt can be used for extra creaminess; this is all I had). Don’t let it boil at this point, or the sauce will break. Add the butter, to enrich and further thicken the sauce, then stir in the cooked pasta. Remove from the heat and stir in a small amount of Parmesan cheese.
Serve with additional Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil on top.
Sassy and Delicious!