Swiss Chard Tart with Ham and Manchego

Crispy shaved ham and Manchego cheese add flavor and texture to a pile ol' pile of Swiss chard from the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm share.

I am having Greens-induced Kitchen Paralysis. I've been unusually busy both weeknights and weekends, and consequently neither my brain nor my fingers are actively working to use the greens in the farm share.  And in my family--using the greens requires active work! After picking up the share this week, when I tried to stuff yet another bag of salad mix into my overloaded fridge, I realized something had to give.

Here's just the greens in my fridge this week (an accumulation of up to 3 weeks worth from our farm share). Not shown are 2 cabbages, a small mountain of kohlrabi, turnips, radishes peppers, leeks and carrots which have overflowed the crispers. The Strategic Winter Squash Reserve is happily hanging out in the basement, waiting until I can deal with it [as is the laundry, not so much the dogs].

Shown are up to 3 weeks of greens from the farm share: a head of lettuce, 2½ bags of salad greens, 2 big bunches of dill, a bag of spinach, a bag of tatsoi, and the bane of my existence--2 giant bags of mustard greens.

Often there is an item from the farm share that stumps me--and causes the creative juices in my brain to grind to a halt. When this happens, like a log jamming up the flow of a stream, I may or may not be able to use up the rest of the perishables while pondering what to do with the lone difficult item. Currently I'm stumped by mustard greens and kohlrabi and beets and radishes, and I am finding it exponentially harder to keep up with the other items that I can usually use without thought.

I've been a canning fool lately--making hot pepper jelly and cranberry salsa to use up the glut of hot peppers. I announce the pings on my FB page, if you'd like to follow along. [Since I had the pot out, I whipped up a batch of kohlrabi pickles with a giant kohlrabi. I'll do a taste test in 3 weeks, and if the recipes are good they will probably appear on the blog next Spring when kohlrabi season resumes.] I've been roasting and freezing tomatoes, and chopping and freezing peppers. But the vegetables keep on coming.

This recipe came about from a previous bout of Greens Paralysis. We happened to be home for lunch on a Saturday and I had no bread for sandwiches nor meat thawed and it was chilly enough I didn't want a salad.  And we'd had eggs for breakfast. Thank goodness for a roll of pie crust in the freezer--I threw everything together and hoped for the best. The kids had seconds--so yeah, this one worked.

For other recipes using Swiss Chard, please check out my Swiss Chard Recipe Collection.

Swiss Chard Tart with Ham and Manchego Cheese

1 pie crust for a single crust pie [yeah, still not making my own]
1 ½ cups shredded Manchego cheese, divided
1 tablespoon butter
¼ cup chopped onion
1 large bunch Swiss chard--stems chopped and leaves sliced (there were about 6 cups of leaves)
¼ cup sliced shaved ham

Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Place pie crust in 10 inch tart pan, pressing up the edges. Prick crust with a fork every few inches, then cover with a double thickness of foil. Bake pie crust in tart pan for 8 minutes, then uncover and bake 5 more minutes. Remove from oven, and scatter ½ cup cheese across crust. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Preheat a large skillet over medium heat and melt 1 Tablespoon of butter. Add the onion and chard stems and sauté 5 minutes until softened. Dump the leaves into the skillet, stir well to coat with butter, and continue cooking another 3-5 minutes until the leaves are wilted. Use tongs to transfer the Swiss chard onto the tart, leaving the extra swiss chard juice in the skillet. Top with the remaining cheese, and scatter the ham across the top. Bake for 20 minutes until ham is crispy, cheese is melted, and crust is lightly browned.  Serve warm.

This post is shared on What's Cookin' Wednesday, Tasty Tuesdays