CSA Share: Week 4

Yum! Minnesota's late spring is a thing of the past, and we are in the full throes of summer...at last. This week, we got a pretty full box (the poor farms are struggling to grow anything!) with: strawberries, cauliflower, cabbage (isn't that the cutest cabbage?),

fennel (love fennel), parsley, kale (lurking over on the left),


and some gorgeous ruby-red chard.

Here's a GREAT recipe featuring chard from Jeanne Lemlin's Simple Vegetarian Pleasures:

Baked Cheese Polenta with Swiss Chard

1 T olive oil
6 garlic cloves, minced
8-10 cups chopped Swiss chard, stems and leaves kept separate

The Polenta
Butter for greasing dish, plus 1 T
2 cups low-fat milk
1.5 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornmeal
3 T grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup sour cream

1. Heat the oil in a large skillet over med. heat. add the garlic and cook 30 sec, then stir in the Swiss chard stems. Pour in a few T of water and cover the pan. Cook the stems 2 minutes. Remove the cover, then mix in the Swiss chard leaves. Cover the pan again and cook until the leaves wilt, about 3 minutes. Toss occasionally. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool, uncovered.
2. To make the polenta, preheat the oven to 400F.
3. Butter a 2-to 2.5-quart shallow baking dish and set it nearby. Combine the milk, water, and salt in a med saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to med-low and slowly drizzle in the cornmeal, whisking all the while with a wire whisk. Continue to cook and whisk the polenta until it is the consistency of mashed potatoes and tears away from the sides of the pan (5 min.). Whisk in 2 T of the Parmesan, the 1 T butter, and the mozzarella.
4. Spread half of the polenta in the baking dish. Spoon on the Swiss chard and distribute it evenly. Drop on small spoonfuls of the sour cream and spread it with the back of a spoon. Spoon on the remaining polenta and spread it out. Sprinkle on the remaining T of Parmesan.
5. Bake the polenta 20-25 minutes, or until golden on top and sizzling. Do not overcook it because you want to retain its creamy interior.

It's SO good.