Sprout & Pea

Impro­vised meals with left­over ingre­di­ents in my refrig­er­a­tor often wind up being the most fun to cook. I sup­pose it’s due to the ele­ment of sur­prise that comes from toss­ing ingre­di­ents together and hop­ing for the best. And when the dish comes out tast­ing deli­cious, it’s a reward­ing reas­sur­ance that maybe I do know what I’m doing in the kitchen. So, with red chard left­over from my tacos, I rum­maged through my kitchen and decided on a gar­lic and chard pasta. While the pasta was cook­ing, I sauteed the chard with some gar­lic, olive oil, white wine and lemon zest. I mixed in my pasta and topped it with some grated parme­san and sat down to enjoy a light, spur of the moment, fla­vor­ful din­ner along­side a refresh­ing glass of white wine. Not bad for a spon­ta­neous week­night din­ner. Here’s how I made it…

Half box Quinoa Lin­guine
5–6 cloves of gar­lic cut into thin slices
3–4 pieces of red chard chopped into small pieces
3–4 tbs extra vir­gin olive oil
2–3 tbs dry white wine
Zest of half a lemon
Salt and pep­per to taste
Grated Parme­san to top with

Cook quinoa lin­guine for 9 min­utes or accord­ing to instruc­tions on the box. While pasta is boil­ing, add olive oil to a medium pan and add gar­lic. Saute over medium heat or until gar­lic becomes very fra­grant and even starts to brown a lit­tle. Add the red chard and white wine and cover and cook over medium heat until chard is soft (about 10–15 min­utes). Add lemon zest and salt and pep­per to taste and toss in the pan. Drain pasta and add pasta to pan with the chard and gar­lic. Toss together, remove from heat. Trans­fer to a bowl, grate a lit­tle more lemon zest on top and top with grated parmesan.