Ricotta Stuffed Swiss Chard

With all the innovations in food, why have we not come up with more no-boil pasta? Seriously. No-boil lasagna noodles are easily on my top ten list of food innovations. Why has no one gotten on the train and invented no-boil manicotti? No-boil jumbo shells? This cuts your cooking time almost in half, people! I'm aiming to stuff some pasta with things and I got no no-boil options.

Enter this dish. I saw a recipe that used collard greens as a wrap instead of flour tortilla. Aha! Why not use leafy greens in the place of manicotti? I suppose necessity really is the mother of invention. Tasty, tasty invention.

Notes: There are a couple of tricks you need to make this dish successfully. When you're de-stemming your swiss chard, try your best to keep the large leaves in tact. This may require some delicate fingers. Instead of the grab-and-pull method, you can use the fold and separate method. Fold the leaves like you're closing a book. Then pull the stem away from the folded leaf like you're tearing a sheet of paper out of a notebook. You'll end up with more whole leaves that way.

Because you're using a veggie, you'll end up with a lot of excess liquid in the bottom of your pan. As such, you'll want to minimize the amount of liquid you add at the beginning. Opt for a thick marinara sauce and drain the liquid out of your ricotta. The excess liquid is not really a deterrent, just something to watch out for.


Ingredients:
10-12 large swiss chard leaves, cleaned and de-stemmed
1 container of ricotta cheese (approx. 15 oz)
1 jar of your favorite marinara sauce (approx. 26 oz)
1 ball of fresh mozzarella
2 teaspoons of dried herbs de provance
2 teaspoons of kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Pepper

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Put your ricotta cheese, herbs, red pepper, salt, and pepper to a bowl and mix well.

Lay your chard leaves out on a flat surface. Put between 1 to 1 1/2 heaping tablespoons on the lower end of the leaf in the center. Tuck the end around the cheese and bring in the sides. Roll it over continuing to tuck in the sides as you go. Roll it up until you have a neat little bundle. Put them seam side down in a glass baking dish. Repeat with all the leaves until the ricotta is used up.

Once your bundles are in the dish, top it with your sauce. Slice the mozzarella ball and lay the discs on top. Cover it with foil and bake it for 30 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for 10 more minutes to brown the cheese on top.

Serve it up and enjoy!