pasta with swiss chard and onion

while i grew up with the wonderful but very rich and heavy dishes my mama and my grandmother taught me to cook i desperately needed to discover my very own style. i believe that every generation needs to learn from the previous one but also should adapt and change the food they grew up with and set their own new standards.

well, that's what i did. and compared with the two previous generations my style was totally lean cuisine (which it is so not!). my grandmother for example used to fry all the wonderful bohemian style dishes in lard almost exclusivly. my mother made the transition to butter and margarine while yours truly in the third generation tries to avoid that grease alltogether. or use a non-stick frying pan and a tsp of olive oil or a knob of butter. don't get me wrong, lard and butter have a very distinctive flavour that often is essential and indispensable in upper austrian cuisine (perhaps in all native rural cooking in general) and i would never totally ban it from my diet. but i don't need to eat it every day either!

coming from a family of loud and big ass women (and i say that in the most loving way, after all i inherited the big mouth and the famous tush!), it still took a while until i gained confidence and my organic way of living. because a herd of dominant women can be very daunting!

i try to broaden my horizon regarding food in general. when i grew up spaghetti really was code for any kind of noodle with a meat and tomato sauce. today i have a different, more diverse point of view as far as pasta is concerned. and i especially like my spaghetti with steamed vegetables and very little sauce. i like all my pasta that way, no matter if spaghetti, tagliatelle, cannelloni or sedanini.

if i still had my spaghetti with butter and heavy sauce i guess i'd have a REAL problem with my weight instead of the oh no, my belly is wobbly and oh god, my thighs are really chubby - remarks i tend to make from time to time ...

where am i going with this post?! i wanted to show you my dinner!

since i had swiss chard in my farm box (a vegetable i absolutely adore) i made some spaghetti with swiss chard and red onion for dinner today. what a lovely combination!

1 swiss chard
1 small red onion
1 tsp of olive oil
100 ml of cream (i used rama cremefin)
pasta, which ever one you like :)
cheese, which ever one you like for your pasta (i used a slice of gouda)

1. cook pasta in a pot of salted water. i like my pasta very well done, but if you like yours al dente that'll work too
2. in the meantime dice the onion, clean and slice the chard
3. when your pasta is done drain it but leave enough of the cooking water to blanch the chard for a few minutes
4. don't overcook the chard, the vegetable should still be firm to the bite. it really only should take a few minutes
   
5. now drain the chard too
6. fry an onion in olive oil (i did that in my pasta/chard-pot) and add the chard before the onion turns brown
7. now stir in the cream and bring to a boil
8. add the cheese and season to taste
9. add pasta and gently toss to combine