This pasta dish was delicious! It had a nice spread of flavors and a lot of health benefits in the beans and chard as well. The only time consuming (but not hard!) element in this recipe is preparing the beans. You can do that in advance or used canned (rinse well) if desired. Don’t let the bean prep stop you from enjoying this great dish! Note: there are carrots on the right side of this plate – Brad always loves to eat the boiled stock carrots – these are from the white beans.

Ingredients:

• 1 c dried white beans
• 1/2 onion, peeled and quartered
• 1-2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2″ chunks
• fresh herbs (3-5 sticks of thyme, rosemary, etc.)
• 1 bay leaf
• ~1 lb. swiss shard, stems removed & torn into bite size pieces (any other greens such as kale or spinach could be used)
• ~1 lb. ground pork or sausage
• 5 cloves of garlic, finely minced
• 1 T fresh rosemary, minced
• 2/3-1 pound of pasta (a sturdy pasta such as penne is good for this)

1. Beans: dried beans cook much more nicely if you can soak them for at least 4 hours. Overnight is even better. Try to plan ahead and do this if possible – your intestines will thank you! Rinse the beans well then put them in a pot with 4 times the amount of water as beans (1:4 ratio). Cover and leave them be.
2. Drain the beans then put them back into the pot. Add the onion, carrot, herbs and bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Depending on how long you soaked the beans, and their age, they will cook for about 45 minutes to an hour.
3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
4. In a sauté pan, cook the pork, rendering fat and pouring it off. Leave just about 1T of fat in the pan. Add the rosemary and garlic and finish cooking through.
5. Once the beans are soft, turn off the heat and remove the onions, carrots, herbs and bay leaf from the pot. The idea is to leave the beans and about 1-1.5 cups of cooking liquid in the pot. Now smash up about half of the beans with a potato smasher or just pressing them a spoon. Turn the heat back onto high and add the chard leaves. Mix completely then cover to cook the leaves.
6. When the chard is cooked (about 3-5 minutes) combine the pasta, bean mixture, and pork. Mix well, sprinkle with Parmesan, and enjoy!