From patch to plate
Time for a spring harvest! It’s always an exciting time of year when we need to retrieve our huge harvesting basket from its winter storage spot, and even more exciting when the basket can be filled with delicious fresh produce in just a few minutes.
First up we cut a few more asparagus spears. We must have planted this crown 3 or 4 years ago. It’s a variety called Fat Bastard and it’s really been living up to that name – season after season we’ve harvested only a few spears before watching the Fat Bastard head off into retirement. Finally though, the spears are coming on thick and fast – worth the wait!
Next we pulled our first carrots from the ground. I think I planted these a little late this year – I’m anxious to get them out of the ground and get my summer crops in so we’re harvesting them a little smaller, but they’re super tasty.
Finally were the peas. From only 6-7 seeds sown, we have been regularly harvesting half a kilo of peas a week – incredibly prolific, not to mention delicious and great options for raw vegie snacks in the lunchboxes.
The crowning glory though was 1kg of swiss chard that completely filled the rest of the hamper. We grow a fair bit of chard as the kids and the chooks love it. Now, I know you’re probably thinking as if the kids love it, but I swear they do! The secret is to make it into one of their favourite foods – lasagne!
So today I’ll walk you through my amazing chard and ricotta lasagne.
First I separate the stalks from the leaves with a sharp knife then wash the lot in cold water.
Next I roughly chopp the stalks and cram them into the Aldi thermo cooker before blitzing to a pulp.
I add a bit of butter and dash of olive oil and cook for about 10 minutes, adding a chopped clove of garlic towards the end.
Next up I steam or par boil the leaves until nice and soft. They get blitz too and added to the stalk mixture.
Adding about 500gm of creamy ricotta, 50gm grated cheese and some salt and pepper has your filling done!
Assembly is pretty standard – a bit of water in the bottom of the dish then dried lasagne sheets from the supermarket. Sometimes we get fancy and make our own pasta but today was not that day.
Half the chard and ricotta mix goes on top then another layer of lasagne sheets and the rest of the ricotta mix followed by more lasagne sheets.
Today’s lasagne was topped with our very last jar of home made passata, which was a bit bittersweet really, but now I know we need to make just a little more next summer.
The final flourish is about 200gm grated cheese over the passata and into a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees celsius for 45 minutes or until the cheese is nice and brown on top.
And – viola! Delicious and nutritious – can’t ask for more than that 🙂
