Chili and garlic Swiss chard (coste aglio olio e peperoncino)

Swiss chard (silver beet) is a vegetable that you can always find in winter, and fortunately I love it. Also it can be cooked in so many ways, as a side or as an ingredient for a main. This is a quick side, I never had it 'spicy' and I was pleasantly surprised!

Just wash the silver beet (chard), cut the white stalks and leaves into fork-size pieces (pieces that you can pick up with a fork). Heat some extra virgin olive oil in a pan, add a peeled clove of garlic or two, and some fresh chilies (I added a green and a red, chopped). When the garlic and chilies sizzle add the white stalks and stir. After a few minutes add the leaves and salt to taste. Cover and let the leaves cook in their own steam, stirring from time to time. Serve hot. Yummy, different and super easy!

And for more silver beet ideas look at all the recipes below :-)

Alessandra Zecchini: Pasta with silverbeet cream and pistachio pesto

Feb 26, 2012

Pick the silverbeet from your veggie garden (or buy it!), as much as you can, since it goes down a lot! I used young tender leaves of rainbow chard. Sauté with olive oil, one sliced shallot and salt. Cover and cook in its own ...

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Alessandra Zecchini: Silver beet Paneer e due paroline alle signore ...

Feb 03, 2011

The other day I showed you my curry made with borage, 'invented' because I have tons of it in the garden! The other green-leaf crop that does well in Auckland is silver beet. My old plants (from last year!) got so tall that I ...

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Alessandra Zecchini: Easy silver beet baked pasta

Jun 15, 2012

I placed the silver beet stalks on top first, and then green leaves as a third layer. I covered everything with the remaining besciamelle. A super generous dusting of grated parmesan cheese on top, and straight into the oven ...

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Alessandra Zecchini: Broken silverbeet bruschetta, a demo in Italian ...

Oct 30, 2011

Broken silverbeet bruschetta, a demo in Italian and what about advertising??? My silverbeet is not big enough to be picked, but I was working in the veggie garden and I broke one entire little plant by mistake. Well, I cut it right ...

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Alessandra Zecchini: Lemon and Thyme Halloumi with Chards

Aug 17, 2012

The other day I cooked some silver beet (chard), leaves and stalk separately. We had the leaves as a side, hot and dressed with some Japanese soy sauce and lemon juice, and I kept the stalks for the day after. I love lemon ...

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How to make Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum), and Sweet New Zealand

Rose Turkish Delights (Lokum) Before I start I would like to say that I don't have a sugar thermometer, essential if you are really into confectionery, and that I didn't use much sugar for these Turkish delights. Many recipes use much more sugar, and it is not that I wanted to make a low sugar treat here (it is still pretty sweet), it is just that making it at home really makes me realize how much sugar there is already in my diet, and if I can have something with a little less... well, why not! This method is 'home friendly' i.e. these can be made at home with very little effort and equipment, and the recipe comes from my book Sweet As... where I also have the recipe for lavender and orange blossom Turkish Delights. Ingredients 1 l water 300 g sugar 2 tbsp lemon juice 100 g cornflour 1 tbsp frozen raspberries 1 tbsp rose water icing sugar (very little) and cornflour (lots) to dust. In a pot put hal...

Mezze Maniche with Mushroom Cream Sauce

Since I had some left over mushroom sauce from yesterday's dish , today I made some pasta. I heard from other bloggers about the Garofalo pasta brand, in NZ I could only find it in one shop, and it was too expensive even to consider, so I thought that I should try it while I am in Italy. I choose mezze maniche for this dish. Mezze maniche with mushrooms I cooked the mezze maniche al dente. In the meantime I warmed up the pan with the left-over mushrooms and added 250 ml of cream. Then I added some freshly chopped Italian parsley and some freshly ground pepper. I drained the mezze maniche and passed them in the pan with the mushroom and cream sauce. They tasted great! Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

Paccheri with tomato, parsley and garlic.

Paccheri are hollow pasta tubes that look like rigatoni or tortiglioni, but with a difference: the paccheri tubes flatten once they are cooked. Usually the have very rich sauces, but I am one for 'less is more' these days, and so here I just warmed up a ready made Italian tomato passata ( a good one ). Once the passata was hot I added some salt, extra virgin olive oil and finely chopped Italian parsley with garlic. These days I am chopping a lot of parsley and garlic together, it is too early for basil, and parsley taste really good in Italy! Also, I like the idea of having a cooked sauce but with raw herbs and garlic in it: the taste changes completely. Simple but really effective!!! If you are not vegan you can add some ricotta to this. Photos by Alessandra Zecchini©

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