Lemon Pasta with Chard and Chives

The post's title is somewhat misleading: this dish is packing tons of good stuff, and should probably be named "Creamy Lemon Spring Pasta with Chard, Chives, Shrimp, and Edammame"

Two main points of inspiration for this cheery/delicious/nutritious spring dish:

1. There is a literally a tugboat's worth of lovely green chard growing in the community garden across the street from our house, which I'll try to photograph when it's a sunny day.  So, I've decided to use bundles of it regularly before it goes to waste (or the squirrels).

2. I recently discovered that one can make a classic French béchamel (white creamy basic sauce) with SKIM milk instead of the usual whole milk, and it works just fine.  Hurrah!!!  This discovery is super-appealing to me because creamy white sauce feels like a luxurious and rich indulgence, but who wants all the fat, calories, and heavy feeling from a sauce that's essentially one step down from a full-on cream sauce?  Skim milk-based béchamel provides the best of both worlds: you get a creamy, luscious sauce for a fraction of the fat that's in classic béchamel or cream-based sauces.  And, while plain béchamel itself doesn't have a lot of flavor, it's a welcoming canvas for almost any flavor profiles you can dream up: roasted garlic, white wine and thyme, goat cheese and rosemary, or in the recipe at hand--lemon and spring chive.  Deeee-lish.

--K, quite excited about the "light béchamel" discovery

FOR THE CHARD:
1 large bunch fresh green chard, washed, trimmed, and roughly chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
canola oil

FOR THE SAUCE:
2 Tbsp. butter
2-3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
2 cups skim milk in a glass measuring cup (you'll see why this is helpful)
1 small bunch fresh chives, minced
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
4 tsp. grated lemon zest

FOR THE PASTA:
12 oz.  medium shell pasta (you could use another shape but shells are especially suited to creamy sauces and hold the edammame well)
8 oz. frozen shelled edammame

OPTIONAL:
some sautéed, poached, or grilled shrimp

1.  Prepare the Chard and start the pasta water:  Place a large pot of water over high heat for the pasta.  While it heats, drizzle a small amount of oil in a large heated skillet.  Dump in the chopped chard, and stir constantly until the chard is completely wilted.  Sprinkle on the garlic and red pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper.  Remove chard from pan and set aside.  (If you prefer well-cooked chard, you could continue stirring it around until it reaches your preferred level of doneness).

2.  Pasta:  Once the water boils, add a few sprinkles of salt and follow the package directions for the pasta cooking time.  About 3-4 minutes before the pasta is done, add the frozen edammame to the same pot with the pasta; they will finish cooking together for about 3 more minutes.   Drain well.

[This is one of my all-time favorite cooking shortcuts: Cooking some pasta and frozen shelled edammame together in the same pot.  Add a simple sauce, and you've got a superfast dinner that's way more healthful and satisfying than plain white pasta.]

3.  Make the sauce:  Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan.  While it's melting, heat the milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds.  When the butter is completely melted and beginning to foam, sprinkle 2 Tbsp. flour over the butter mixture and begin to whisk until a brown paste (called a roux) forms.  Let the roux cook for about a minute, then slowly stream in the warmed skim milk.  Continue whisking for several minutes, working to break up the clumps of the roux and smooth them into the sauce.  The mixture should be smooth (no brown clumps) after a few minutes of solid whisking.  Continue whisking for a couple more minutes until the mixture thickens into a nice creamy white sauce.  It's about done when it leaves a thick coating on a spoon.  If it's not thickening properly, you could add more sprinkles of flour.  Finally, when you have your basic béchamel thick and ready, add in the lemon juice and minced chives.  Season to taste with salt and pepper (you could also add more lemon juice if desired; I did because I wanted a very sharp lemon flavor).

4.  Plating:  Once the lemon chive sauce it done to you liking, add the drained pasta and edammame right from the colander into the sauce pot, and mix well until everything is well coated with the sauce.  Adjust your seasonings if necessary.  Serve up a few ladelfuls of pasta into a shallow bowl, and top with a bunch of the chard.  If you have any leftover shrimp lying around (as I did), you could plop it on top of the chard.  I like to top the whole thing off with a bit of lemon zest...Enjoy!