Spaghetti with pancetta, chard and cobnut 'pesto'

Cobnuts - like asparagus - have a very short season, and are often not widely available.  Grown mainly in Kent, the cobnut is a variety of hazelnut but is typically eaten 'fresh' rather than stored.  The cobnut has a delicate 'green' flavour and is one of late summer's real treats as far as I'm concerned.
The recipe below for cobnut 'pesto' is unashamedly ripped-off from Rick Stein, who pairs it with sprats.  However, I had a huge bag of chard appear in my organic box this weekend, and happened to be passing my local greengrocer who had some cobnuts... and a pretty good recipe was born.
This was the first time I have cooked with chard of any variety  - though I have successfully cooked beetroot tops before and they are closely related.  The stalks of chard - its reason for being - have a subtle vegetably sort of flavour, and the leaves are not dissimilar to spinach, though without the irony tang.  And the good news is that chard is pretty good for you, being packed with vitamin A, iron, calcium and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Spaghetti with pancetta, chard & cobnut 'pesto'
Serves 4
For the pesto:
20-30 shelled cobnuts
1/2 oz parsley, roughly chopped
1/2 oz parmesan, freshly grated
up to 5 fl oz sunflower (or other neutral) oil
salt and pepper

Whiz all the ingredients together in a blender - and 'hey pesto! magic' (sorry).

For the pasta sauce:
2 oz pancetta diced
1tbs olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1lb chard (Swiss or Ruby or mixed) - stalks and leave separated
1 glass dry white wine
2tbsp double cream (optional)
pepper

Gently sweat the pancetta to get the fat running.  Put the pasta on to boil in plenty of salted water.
Turn up the heat on the pancetta, add the olive oil and the garlic and soften.
Add the chard stalks, cut into lengths about an inch long (you'll have to judge this, as some stalks are very thick and fibrous, others less so). Stir fry the chard, garlic and pancetta until the bacon starts to brown.  Add the wine and let it bubble away until the stalks are tender.
Add the cream, if using, and the chard leaves, sliced into ribbons.

Drain the pasta when cooked, and return to a very low heat.  Stir in the cobnut pesto, covering all the spaghetti and serve with the chard and pancetta on top...  Delicious!

I've got some pictures... but don't have the cable with me to connect to the PC - D'oh!

tags: pasta  cobnuts  

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