Hello Foodies Bee Hive, My inspiration for this dish is a simple yet enjoyable meal that one can quickly make for lunch or dinner. Another thing I had in mind was my vegetable garden and what greens grow on these cool spring days. So I picked some swiss chard, parsley, cilantro, stinging nettle, and salad.
Since I am a big fan of roasted garlic pasta I decided to build the dish around that. So how I made this easy yet fulfilling dish?
Ingredients:
Main dish
100g Any type of pasta
4 cloves of garlic
250g swiss chard
50g young stinging nettle leaves
15g parsley
50g roasted walnuts
Side dish:
Green leafy salad seasoned with olive oil and apple cider vinegar, salt, chopped cilantro.
Stinging Nettle - be careful!
Directions:
In a large pot boil enough salted water to cover the pasta and cook the pasta until it softens. While the pasta is cooking roast the walnuts until they start to blacken. At this point put walnuts on a towel and cover them with the remaining part of the towel. By gently rolling walnuts you'll get the burned skin off and get rid of the bitter flavor.
Put the swiss chard in a large nonsticking pan with a little excess pasta water until they soften. Key is to keep the greens cooking without drowning them in water, once the stalk softens add the young stinging nettle and season with salt and pepper. While the greens simmer away chop the walnuts into smaller chunks and continue chopping the garlic and parsley. Once the pasta is cooked drain it well and place it into the large pan with olive oil and garlic. Keep it on medium heat to get the golden color crisp edges here and there.
To serve place the pasta at the bottom and continue covering it with the greens, walnuts, and finally parsley. Finish with more freshly ground pepper and a generous drizzle of olive oil. Next to the spring pasta don't forget to enjoy a bowl of salad mentioned in the ingredients section.
