Rainbow chard and lentil pasta

A couple of weeks ago, a couple of our friends told us about Coon Rock CSA. CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) offers city dwellers an opportunity to get fresh produce from nearby farms. It's not only a great way to eat fresh seasonal organic vegetables and meat but also a great way to support local farms. The idea of getting a box of vegetables every week seemed a bit daunting at first but Coon Rock Farms makes it even more convenient and flexible. Instead of signing up for a weekly supply of vegetables, you can also create custom orders. Its really simple: join their mailing list, get a weekly list of the produce, mail them back with what you need and pick up from a location nearby!

We picked up our first custom CSA order last Thursday and we are quite excited! We have fingerling sweet potatoes, purple top turnips, rainbow swiss chard and some chorizo sausage. I have been trying to figure out ways and means of putting these to good use over the last couple of days and have come up with this pasta so far.

This pasta with chard and lentils is inspired from two different pasta dishes we had over the last couple of weeks. One was made by our friends who cooked us a wonderful Middle Eastern dinner last weekend. The pasta dish they made is a Damascus specialty and is somewhat like a pasta casserole with lentils. The second pasta dish was made by another of our friends for dinner this weekend and had swiss chard with fettuccine and walnuts. I loved both and decided to combine the lentils and chard into one dish. I tried to refrain from using any strong herbs/spices in this dish so that the fresh chard would be the star.

Ingredients

One medium onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, chopped

Bunch of swiss/rainbow chard

1 cup cooked lentils

2 cups of fusilli/penne pasta

juice and lemon zest of half a lemon

lots of fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil and add chopped garlic.

- Stir garlic for a couple of minutes and then add the chopped onion.

- When the onion is soft, add the chopped chard and saute well.

- Once the chard wilts, add the cooked lentils (I boiled them in water)

- Add lemon juice, zest, salt and pepper.

- Add the cooked pasta and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes to get all the flavors mixed in.

- Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and serve.