GARDEN FRESH : Consider Chard--and You Will Be Rewarded

I wish I understood why, given vegetables with much the same form and content, one makes it into the mainstream of American cookery and the other teeters on the edge of oblivion. Spinach made it; Swiss chard hasn’t. Yet.

It’s puzzling. Swiss chard, with leaves up to a spectacular foot long, is two delicious vegetables in one--the crinkly dark green leafy parts and the succulent broad flat ribs.

Chard is a beet that doesn’t have a fleshy root; it’s also known as leaf beet, silver beet and spinach beet. Raw, the greens have the sweet under-taste of beet leaves. Cooked, they taste like mild spinach. The flavor of the ribs has been compared to that of celery and asparagus.

Chard was the original domesticated beet, cultivated since Babylonian times. Aristotle knew of the magnificent ruby form of chard whose ribs resemble rhubarb. Although much appreciated by European cooks, no one seems to know how the word Swiss got attached to the vegetable. I just call it chard.

Chard is especially popular in the south of France. In Nice, a long-simmered broth court-bouillon is prepared with onion, garlic, parsley, bay and thyme. Chard ribs are cut in pieces about 1 1/2 inches long and blanched in the broth for about 10 minutes. A sauce based on crushed anchovy fillets, garlic and parsley is prepared with some of the broth and thickened with flour. The rib pieces are placed in a gratin dish, napped with the sauce, then gilded under the broiler. Meanwhile, the leaves are simmered in a big pot of salted water until tender, drained thoroughly, then served cool with olive oil and vinegar.

To separate the leaves and ribs, fold each stalk in half lengthwise, then remove the greens by pulling them off the rib. For most recipes, chop the greens or slice them crosswise into 1/2-inch-wide ribbons. Slice the ribs on the bias as thick as you like.

Anything that can be done with spinach leaves can be done with the leafy parts of chard. In the Near East, they’re often stuffed like grape leaves. In Italy, chard leaves are particularly prized in pastas. Leaves are minced as part of the filling for ravioli and cappelini or layered in lasagna.

One of my favorite pasta dishes is green lasagna. Instead of the red of tomatoes, layers of pasta are filled with finely chopped greens bound with thick cream sauce enriched with egg. Although a veil of tomato sauce can moisten each pasta layer, the dish is purest using cream sauce flavored with a little mild cheese. Chard is ideal for pairing with delicate elements because when cooked, it retains its flavor without dominating.

Leafy greens of chard also make terrific frittatas. Slice the greens into broad ribbons and cook them in a non-stick skillet in a veil of olive oil just until wilted. Stir them into a bowl of eggs beaten as for scrambled eggs, adding grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper to taste. Lightly butter the skillet and set it over medium heat. When the butter sizzles, pour in the eggs, shaking the skillet to even out the chard. Set a lid on askew and cook quietly over low heat without stirring until much of the mixture is set and the bottom is nicely browned.

Set a big plate over the skillet and flip it over, dropping the egg cake onto the plate. Add a bit more butter to the skillet, then slide the egg cake back in. Cook another few minutes to set the other side. Serve in wedges, hot or cold, sprinkled with more cheese and, in season, chopped tomatoes.

Ribbons of greens are beautiful threaded through a clear broth. You can add peas for another shape and texture, or strips of ham or softened rings of red onions, then top with shredded Swiss cheese.

Chard ribs can be prepared any way you’d use celery. Raw, they’re a refreshing addition to salads. Consider matchsticks of chard ribs with diced red apples, orange sections and curly endive dressed with olive oil and red wine vinegar or big slices of chard ribs with quartered artichoke hearts, pimento strips and toasted sunflower seeds dressed with olive oil and lemon juice.

Some of the best flavor-lifters you can use with chard, as with most leafy greens, are lemon, a hint of nutmeg, a little chopped sweet basil or grated mild cheese.

The French bundle neatly trimmed chard ribs, cook them in boiling salted water until barely tender, then sprinkle them with salt and a little sugar. The ribs are served still bundled, sprinkled with melted butter and chopped parsley. Another method is to splash them with fresh lemon juice and mantle them with dried bread crumbs browned in butter.

For its colors, flavors, textures and casual elegance, a super place for both parts of chard is in a risotto. It makes a perfect vegetarian main dish or vegetables-and-starch accompaniment for a roast or grill. Composed with ruby chard, the risotto has a beautiful rosy glow.

Another fine way to use both parts of chard stalks is in minestrone.

Chard not only provides delicious, nutritious eating, it’s also one of the most valuable plants in the kitchen garden. Of the generous cut-and-come-again habit, when you pick leaves from the plant’s perimeter, more will sprout in the center.

If you sow seeds indoors two to three weeks before your traditional frost-free date in spring (or in early spring where there is no frost), you can start picking leaves a couple of months later. In summer, as spinach goes to seed and other greens wilt, chard keeps its vitality. Given the protection of mulch (and a cold frame where there’s frost), you can pick chard leaves all winter long. The next spring it will want to flower, but if you keep the buds picked, you can have your plant another year.

In the border, chard is a beautiful fountain of stalks. Give plants a sunny sheltered spot, lots of water and good soil or grow it in a five-gallon container.

For lots of juicy ribs, grow Monstruoso, an Italian cultivar. Charlotte, from Switzerland, is the most brilliant scarlet I’ve seen; as the sun sets behind it, ribs and leaves glow.

* Sources:

Seeds from the Cook’s Garden, P.O. Box 535, Londonderry, VT 05148.