Swiss Chard, Garbanzos and Pasta

This week, our delivery included some beautiful deep green swiss chard with colorful yellow stems. I decided to combine it with chick peas (aka Garbanzo beans) in a pasta dish. This dish SHOULD serve 6-8 people. I'm embarassed to admit that the three of us ate almost the entire thing! (Guess I should have made a fresh salad to go with it!) The recipe is below. Note that I didn't measure anything, so I'm just "guesstimating" on some of the amounts.

Swiss Chard, Garbanzos and Pasta

• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• 1 bunch swiss chard, washed and chopped
• 1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 pound linguini or any shape pasta
• hot pepper flakes
• salt, pepper, spices

Cook pasta according to directions in a large pot. Meanwhile, heat a large pan (preferably one with a cover) over medium heat. Add olive oil (somewhere around 3 tbsp). Add garlic and as many hot pepper flakes as you are comfortable with (I did about 3 or 4 shakes). Saute the garlic until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the can of garbanzo beans, a few squirts of lemon juice (depending on how lemony you like it) and the chard. Cover the pan and let cook for a bit, stir occasionally. You'll find that after about 5 minutes the chard has shrunk to about a 10th of its original size.

When pasta is cooked, drain it and return it to the large pot. Stir in some olive oil (did I mention that you should always use the BEST quality virgin olive oil - it does make a difference). Add some salt, pepper, and any spices you like (I suggest oregano, marjoram, herbs de provence, etc). I used a Mediterranean salt mix that was excellent.

Stir the chard/garbanzo mix into the pasta and add extra spices, lemon juice and/or olive oil to taste.

I wanted to get a picture of this dish, but we couldn't stop eating long enough to get the camera. Maybe next time!