Disguising swiss chard

Top tip: Small leaves of Swiss chard are more tender and subtler in flavour. Keep picking the leaves to avoid bolting.

The mix of sunshine and (copious amounts of) rain has been perfect chard weather and it has been growing fast. In fact I harvested over a kilo the other day and some of the remaining plants are bolting (putting out flowers and trying to set seed).

It's pretty popular stuff with gourmets and not often found in shops however the taste can be 'earthy' and isn't always popular with people. Tom, my husband, objects to it neat (even with chili, garlic and/ or bacon) so I have to disguise it - ideally with some pasta and cheese. This recipe is easy to do and tasty.

2 tubs of quark (or Philadelphia if you can't get quark, though quark is lower in fat)
Some grated chunks of left over cheese
A few cloves of garlic chopped
1 onion, chopped
Swiss chard, a good handful
A simple tomato sauce
8 lasagne sheets

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Blend the quark, garlic, cheese and onion. Blanch the chard for 3 minutes or so, drain and squeeze out the excess water. blend in with the quark mixture. Boil the lasagne sheets. Separate and roll (they can be a bit sticky so I often boil a few more sheets to allow for ripping accidents). Put a couple of spoonfuls of the mixture into a lasagne sheet and roll up. Place in an oven proof dish, cover with tomato sauce (in this instance it was home grown) and more cheese. Cook till bubbling and brown.

Courgettes, Pine nuts and SULTANA pasta - adapting a great Nigella recipe

This is a testament to being adventurous in the kitchen (and other places of course!). Inspired by the Cookbook a month blog I decided to challenge my prejudices and try Nigella Lawson's recipe that involves sultanas with courgettes (which I have only tried in carrot cake style cupcake).
It has turned out to be yet another way to use up courgettes but this is worth it even when you don't have a glut as it's surprisingly delicious. The quantities are supposed to serve 4 but I found it was fine for two greedy people. I also reduced the parsley to 3 tablespoons and increased the garlic to 4 cloves (there is always a risk of vampires in South London and we need to be prepared). We also tossed in a couple of extra tablespoons of butter with the pasta at the end as we crave heart attack by fat later in life.

•3 tablespoons butter
•1 tablespoon olive oil

•675g courgettes (4 medium)

•4 cloves garlic, chopped

•salt

•3 tablespoons Marsala (keep it boozy!)

•1/3 cup sultanas (golden raisins)

•2 tablespoons pine nuts

•225g egg pappardelle

•5 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan

•3 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Heat one tablespoon of butter and oil in a heavy-based saucepan, and cut the courgettes into very fine rounds before adding them to the pan. Chopped up the garlic and add in, season with salt. Cook over a low to medium heat for about 45 minutes, stirring every now and again.

At the same time, warm the Marsala, pour it over the sultanas and leave them to plump up for about 15 minutes (pop in the microwave for 30 seconds to speed things up). Once the courgettes are cooked, stir the sultanas and their juices into them. Taste for seasoning. Toast the pine nuts by cooking them in a dry frying pan until they turn a golden brown, and remove to a cold plate.

Cook the pasta according to package instructions, then drain and tip into a bowl, toss with the last two tablespoons of butter. Add the courgette mixture and fold and toss to combine. Sprinkle over the pine nuts, Parmesan and most of the chopped parsley and toss everything gently together again. Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and take to the table. Add even more Parmesan. YUM!