Lasagna with Chard: In Practically No Time.

Like many foodies, I have subscriptions to the usual cooking magazines: Saveur, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit. And I still haven't forgiven Condé Nast  for the loss of Gourmet. But I find that my real go-to source for recipe ideas is The New York Times.

I'm a total fan of Mark Bittman and his Minimalist columns. I can't wait to check out the Wednesday food section and the Sunday Magazine recipes each week. Oh yes, and several times a week, I go online to see what Martha Rose Shulman is featuring in her ongoing series, Recipes for Health, where she focuses on a particular seasonal produce item, grain, or pantry ingredient to inspire meals that are delicious, easy, and nutritious. In fact, her recipes have just been collected and published in a new cookbook, The Very Best of Recipes for Health: 250 Recipes And More from the Popular Feature on NewYorkTimes.com. Last year about this time, she published a recipe for a vegetarian lasagna with chard, tomato sauce and ricotta. I didn't make it then, but I filed it away in my mind (and on my computer).

So after I came home from the Seacoast Farmers' Market with beautiful bunches of Swiss chard from the New Roots stand, and knowing I had a tub of Narragansett Creamery's Renaissance Ricotta that needed to be used, I decided this was the time to try that lasagna.

I'd bought some heirloom tomatoes to make the sauce -- and some baby leeks, which weren't part of the recipe, but I thought would make a good addition. I also decided to defrost three of my brother-in-law Dave's homemade hot Italian sausages. Meat isn't called for in the recipe either, but it was definitely part of the taste I had in mind.

I made the tomato sauce according to instructions, though I added a second big sprig of basil, because I wanted more of that flavor. I did not peel and seed the tomatoes before cooking, and while I considered pureeing them in the food mill, I just left it all in. (I don't think it makes the sauce bitter and figure it adds fiber.)

I briefly contemplated asking Dave to make homemade noodles, then I got an idea: we have a terrific local pasta maker, Terra Cotta Pasta Co. -- perhaps they make lasagna noodles. Voila, they do! And the noodles are thin and wonderful, not like those thick no-boil ones you find in the supermarket. They're frozen, so you just leave them out to defrost and layer them in the pan. What could be easier?

The dish was a real treat. (I love the earthy chard taste, but I suspect the sausage and leeks were good additions, too.) And I'm crazy about those noodles. I suspect I'll be making lasagna more often now.

Lasagna With Chard, Tomato Sauce and Ricotta

By Martha Rose Shulman, NewYorkTimes.com

This savory vegetarian lasagna is easy to put together. You can assemble it up to a day ahead of time, then bake it shortly before dinner. (My non-vegetarian version includes Italian sausage and leeks.)

Ingredients
1 generous bunch Swiss chard (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Salt
1/2 pound regular or no-boil lasagna noodles
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
2 large garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced, or 1 (28-ounce) can chopped tomatoes, with juice
Pinch of sugar
1 large basil sprig
Freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese (I had more, so I used more, probably 1 cup all together)
1/3 to 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan (I added 1/2 cup of pecorino romano)
I also used hot Italian sausage, three links, which I removed from the skin and sauteed and three leeks which I sliced and sauteed in the sausage pan. I then added both to the tomato/chard sauce.

Instructions
1. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil while you prepare the chard. Fill a bowl with ice water. Tear the leaves from the stems and wash thoroughly in two changes of water. Discard the stems or set aside for another purpose.

2. When the water comes to a boil, add the Swiss chard leaves. Boil 1 minute (from the time the water comes back to a boil), until tender but still bright green, then remove from the water with a slotted spoon or skimmer and transfer to the ice water. Drain and squeeze out excess water. Chop coarsely and set aside. Cook the lasagna noodles in the same pot of water if not using no-boil lasagna noodles. Remove the pasta from the pot and toss with 1 teaspoon olive oil in a bowl.

3. In a wide, nonstick frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, basil sprig, and salt (begin with 1/2 teaspoon and add more later), and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring often, until thick, 15 to 25 minutes, depending on the amount of juice in the pan. Taste and adjust seasonings. Remove the basil sprig. Stir in the Swiss chard and remove from the heat. (I added the Italian sausage and leeks at this point.)

4. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Oil a square or rectangular baking dish (no bigger than 2-quart) and line the bottom with a layer of lasagna noodles. Spread half the ricotta over the noodles and half the tomato-chard sauce over the ricotta. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons Parmesan over the tomato-chard sauce. Add another layer of noodles and top with the remaining ricotta and tomato-chard sauce, and 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Finish with a layer of noodles and the remaining Parmesan. Drizzle the remaining tablespoon of olive oil over the top. Cover the dish tightly with foil. Bake 30 minutes, or until bubbling and the pasta is tender. Uncover, allow to sit for 5 minutes, and serve.

Yield: Serves 4 to 6

Advance preparation: You can blanch the chard and make the sauce up to 3 days ahead. Refrigerate in covered containers. The lasagna can be assembled a day ahead of time and refrigerated until shortly before baking.

A Feast of Roasted Radishes

A few years ago, when I was reorganizing my cookbooks, I moved my small collection of Time-Life Foods of the World cookbooks out of the kitchen and into the bookcase that surrounds my living room mantle. Though they were written by some of the most preeminent food writers of their day -- for instance, Waverly Root wrote the Italian volume, M.F.K. Fisher and Julia Child, the French -- I'd always valued them much more for their evocative photography and storytelling than for the actual recipes. In fact, it was one of the pictures that I saw in The Cooking of Provincial France in the early seventies that changed the way I thought of radishes forever: a tow-haired boy of about four or five eating an open-faced sandwich of long rose-and-white breakfast radishes on a slice of well-buttered French bread. For someone who'd only eaten bright red radishes raw in salads or dipped in salt, it was a glimpse of an unknown, yet exciting world.

I had same thrill recently when I found not one, but two articles extolling the virtues of cooked radishes: one by Melissa Clark in The New York Times; the other by Donna Long in a Saveur article entitled Foods that Inspire. Needless to say, I was incredibly inspired by both. It was early May and the Farmers' Market in Portsmouth had just opened. I found a beautiful mixed bunch of radishes at the Wake Robin Farm stand.

I decided to take Melissa Clark's idea of combining radishes and feta and use Long's recipe for roasting. 

Then I gave it a twist of my own: serving it on crackers as an hors'd oeuvre, as sort of homage to that tow-headed French boy who had captivated me with his radish sandwich so many years ago.

Roasted Radishes
with Feta Cheese on Crackers
Based on a recipe from Saveur Magazine

Ingredients
1 bunches assorted radishes
1 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Half cup of feta cheese, crumbled
8 large flat water crackers

Directions
1. Heat oven to 425˚. Trim radish greens; reserve for another use. Wash radishes, pat dry, and transfer to a large bowl with oil and thyme. Toss to combine; season with salt and pepper.

2. Cut radishes in half and put them into a shallow baking dish and cook, turning occasionally, until golden brown and a small knife slides easily into radishes, about 20 minutes.
3. Sprinkled crumbled feta on the radishes and put back into the oven for a few minutes, until the cheese has melted.
4. Place on crackers and serve.

SERVES 4

Adios Tomatoes!

Here in Portsmouth, the swamp maples are turning red. Our winter feeder birds—juncos, bluebirds, and white-throats—have arrived. Migrating warblers are passing through. Signs of deepening fall are everywhere, but I can’t stop thinking about tomatoes.

Earlier this week in Boston, when a timely flyer on my car windshield reminded me that the Farmers Market at Prudential Center was still open, I'd headed right over. Immediately, my eye was drawn to the colorful selection of beautifully ripe heirloom tomatoes at the stand run by MacArthur Farm of Holliston, MA. That's when I realized I’d yet to make one of my favorite summer recipes: tomato paella.

I first discovered this dish two years ago, thanks to Mark Bittman’s Minimalist column in the New York Times. Because it's so simple, the quality of the ingredients is key here, especially the tomatoes. Don’t try it with tomatoes you find in the supermarket, unless they’re local, farm grown. The recipe itself is pretty straight forward. You core and cut the tomatoes into wedges, season them, and put them in a bowl, so you can capture all the wonderful juices.

Next, you fry up some minced onion, garlic, and a chili pepper (my addition), then saute with saffron and smoked Spanish paprika. The recipe says these are optional, but to me, they form a deep, essential flavor base.

For the rice, a quality short-grained rice is a must. This time, I used a Carnoroli "risotto-style" rice, but I've successfully substituted short-grained brown rice as well.
I also prefer the richness provided by homemade chicken stock, but if you don't have any, you can use water.

You’re welcome to turn this into a traditional paella, adding meat and seafood like shrimp, mussels, or clams. But I love it this way, as a main course on a hot summer night, or as a side to roast pork or chicken on a cool October evening. It’s a great way to say “via con dias” to last of the season’s tomatoes.

(By the way, the Prudential Center Farmers Market is from 11 to 6 on Thursdays through the end of October, on the Boylston Street Plaza.)

Mark Bittman's Paella With Tomatoes
The Minimalist, New York Times, September 5, 2007

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups stock or water
1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 small minced hot pepper (optional)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Large pinch saffron threads (optional)
2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika
2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice
Minced parsley for garnish

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Warm stock or water in a saucepan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat.

2. Put remaining oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic (and chili, if using), sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined.

3. Put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes.

4. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.