Rainbow chard leaf pesto

Look at these rainbow chard! Nice, huh? I had a grand plan this week. I was going to make a rainbow chard lasagne using the leaves and stems in different ways. The leaves would be pulsed into a green pesto. The stems would be sauted in olive oil and garlic. The stems would be further cooked in the leaf-pesto-cream sauce before being layered with ricotta and mozzarella in a vegetable lasagne.

If it worked right, the finished lasagne would be an explosion of color: the light green of the pesto cream and the bright yellows and fuschias of the chard bits. Well, it totally did NOT work out as I planned. The leaf pesto came out fine, so I am including that recipe here, below. The stems, on the other hand, turned black! I had sauteed the stems ahead of time and refrigerated them, hoping to just combine the lasagne layers the next day. I cooked the lasagne anyhow, including the black chard bits, and it was a total FAIL! Oh, well, lesson learned. We will try to cook the chard into the lasagne on the same day next time.

In the meantime, here's the rainbow chard leaf pesto recipe from Pantry Eats:

Ingredients:

2 cups lightly packed chard, torn and ribs removed

1/4 cup toasted walnuts

2 tsp fresh lemon zest

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil

1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1/3 cup fresh shredded parmesan cheese

Directions: Process chard, walnuts, lemon zest, and lemon juice until paste starts to form. Gradually add oil and blend until creamy. Stir in parmesan cheese and salt and pepper.