A Fistful of Greens

Did I mention that the first several months of CSA deliveries are filled with greens, greens, and more greens? I did? Ok, well did I mentioned that once the summer kicks in, you start getting onions, onions, and more onions? No? Fortunately, onions keep longer than greens, so I'm not always desperately trying to cook them before they go bad. But after a few weeks it's easy to end up with a crisper full of onions that need to be moved on to a better place (like my stomach).

Today, I had such a crisper full of onions. I also had a fridge full of chard and kale from a week ago that did, in fact, desperately need to be cooked. And today was delivery-day, so more veg had just arrived. Time to hit the interwebs and find a recipe to use up all those greens and onions (not to be confused with green onions). The solution: Italian Greens and Spaghetti!

I found this gem in a post on a forum (thanks to the magic of Google knowing everything that is everywhere on the net). The recipe goes something like this [my modifications in italics in brackets]:

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 large onions, thinly sliced [or in my case, two medium onions and three small ones]
2 large bunches swiss chard (trimmed and chopped, stems removed) [I used one big bunch of chard and one big bunch of kale]
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed [I went with garlic powder out of laziness--prepping greens takes so much time!]
1 box  spaghetti (cook while making sauce)
2 14oz cans diced tomatoes [I used the kind pre-seasoned with garlic, oregano, & basil]
1/4 cup kalamata olives, chopped [plus extra -- loves me some kalamata olives]
handful toasted pine nuts [forgot to buy these -- I bet they would have been good]
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes [or not -- I didn't use any of these]

DIRECTIONS

- heat oil and saute onion until browned (about 20 min)
- add swiss chard leaves and toss until wilted (about 5 min)
- add garlic, salt, pepper and cook 30 seconds
- add tomatoes with juices and simmer about 5 minutes, until swiss chard is very tender and tomatoes start to break down
- toss spaghetti in sauce and transfer to serving bowl [I didn't actually do this. I kept them separate so that each plate could have a personalized noodle-to-veg ratio.]
- olives, nuts, cheese can be put on pasta in large serving bowl or each person can add their own in small bowls

TIPS AND TRICKS
I like to saute my "lots o greens" recipes in a wok. Greens cook down a lot, so you have to start with what seems like a massive amount of fresh greens. It's just easier to keep all the greens in the pan when the pan is a big, giant wok. Even then, I still have to put in a couple of handfuls, stir them around in the oil and get them to shrink a little, then add another couple of handfuls, and repeat until it's all in there.

Also, I like to saute my greens with rubber-tipped tongs. I feel it's important to be able to flip them over and get the oil on all sides. Plus, when adding fresh handfuls, it's easier to get those down underneath the already oily greens from the previous handfuls.

End result:

This turned out really yummy. The basil in the canned tomatoes really gave the whole dish a hearty sweetness. The texture of the greens and the pasta together was also really nice, as Amy pointed out while eating it. This recipe is definitely a keeper.