Chard, Ricotta, and Saffron Cakes

Rather than saying “eat your vegetables,” what I really want to say is “make the most of the beautiful, delicious vegetables that are growing right now.” The tables at the farm stands and farmers’ markets are overflowing. The greens are back, root vegetables are here, and we’re lucky enough to still be getting some summery things like corn, eggplant, and the very last of the second-season tomatoes. I’ve been so excited about all the pretty vegetables lately; I’m even considering skipping the turkey for our Thanksgiving menu. I’m imagining a feast of all vegetables. There’s always something stunning in our CSA box too, and I’ve been grabbing my copy of Vegetable Literacy for inspiration for using it all. A couple of weeks ago, I opened our box to find just-picked, stunning radishes and baby turnips. The greens, still attached, were perfectly fresh. I made the Finely Shaved Radish, Turnip, and Carrot Salad with Manchego and Spicy Greens from the book. The radish and turnip tops were sliced into a chiffonade and tossed with the thin discs of root vegetables cut on a mandoline. The salad was dressed with lemon and olive oil, topped with sprouts, and gilded with shaved Manchego. Turnips aren’t always an easy sell, but when they’re this fresh and mixed into such a bright, flavorful salad, they don’t last long. With our next CSA delivery, I found a fetching bunch of big, red Swiss chard leaves that deserved a good recipe for them. A quick look at Vegetable Literacy turned up little, savory pancakes made with chopped chard, ricotta, and saffron. It sounded perfect. 

The chard leaves were cut from the stems, washed, and cooked with just the water clinging to the leaves until wilted. The leaves were drained, left to cool, and then squeezed to remove excess water. I held onto the stems and used them as well. A couple of pinches of saffron were covered with two tablespoons of boiling water and left to steep for a few minutes. Meanwhile, flour, salt and baking powder were combined in a small bowl. In a larger bowl, ricotta, parmesan, milk, and eggs were whisked together before olive oil and the saffron were added. The dry ingredients were whisked into the ricotta mixture, and then the drained and squeezed chard leaves were finely chopped and added to the batter. The batter was dropped by the spoonful into a hot skillet with a small bit of olive oil. You want to cook the cakes over medium heat to allow enough time for them to cook through before getting too brown on one side. They cooked for about three minutes per side. They could be garnished in all sorts of ways including dollops of sour cream or yogurt and diced pieces of roasted beets or micro greens as Deborah Madison suggested. I had some creme fraiche on hand, so I used that for a topping. Also, we had received some fresh corn that I cut from the cob and sauteed in browned butter. After sauteing the corn, I sauteed the chopped chard stems keeping them separated to prevent the red stems from staining the yellow corn. Both were used on top of the creme fraiche. Last, I fried some sage leaves from my herb garden in the brown butter to add one more color to the presentation. 

These chard cakes were rich and tasty with the ricotta and eggs, and I always love the flavor of saffron. However, these would still be great without saffron. I can’t wait to see what the farms deliver next week. And, I can’t wait to find the right recipes for using it all. I just have to stop myself from bringing home more vegetables than we can eat. 

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