Silverbeet or Swiss Chard 4 Ways.

Our silverbeet plants are profuse producers.  In recent weeks we have been making an effort to actually use what they produce, as so often before the leaves have wilted on the plants!

1.  Replace the bechemal sauce in your favourite lasagne recipe with a mix of ricotta cheese and cooked, processed silverbeet.  I wash my silverbeet, roughly chop it and then sensor cook it in the microwave.  Once it has cooled a bit I process it to a fine dice in the food processor.

2.  Use it in a canneloni filling.  Just mix ricotta, some grated parmesan and some processed silverbeet and stuff into your tubes.  Cover with a tomato passata (we used homemade) or favourite pasta sauce, put a little cheese on top and bake for 1 hour in a 180 degree oven.

3.  Make Rhonda's Silverbeet and Ricotta pie!  Recipe here.  We used a shortcrust pastry rather than the filo because we had a legacy box of pastry mix from a former house sitter.  If you want to go this method, just blindbake the crust for 1/2 hour than follow Rhonda's instructions.

4.  Make Jamie Oliver's Spinach and Lemon Linguine.  Just replace the baby spinach leaves with silverbeet.

Recipe is from Jamie Magazine Yearbook 2009/10

Ingredients
400g linguine
6tbsp olive oil
50g fresh breadcrumbs (we used Panko)

Grated zest and juice of one lemon

3 garlic cloves, sliced

1 large red chilli (optional), chopped

600g baby spinach leaves, washed

grated parmesan to serve

Method

Boil a pan of salted water, add the linquine and cook according to packet instructions.  Meanwhile, in a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and fry the breadcrumbs for a couple of minutes until golden.  Transfer to kitchen paper to drain, then mix with the lemon zest and set aside. 

Heat the remaining oil in the pan, add the garlic and chilli and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes until the garlic egins to turn golden.  Add the spinach and cook until it had wilted, seasoning with salt and black pepper to taste.

When the pasta is al dente, drain, reserving a little of the cooking water, and add to the pan with the spinach.  Stir in the lemon juice, adding a little of the reserved cooking water to loosen as necessary.  Lastly, sprinkle over the breadcrumb and lemon zest mixture, then serve, with parmesan, if desired.