Secra e Suriaca

This recipe is from Eva over at Pastagrammer.com. It takes a while to cook, but it can be made well in advance. You can cook this dish hours ahead of time, let the ingredients sit, and quickly toss them together for dinner. Secra e Suriaca literally translates to Swiss chard and beans. I find bean dishes really satisfying in the fall, and they perfectly highlight why meat isn't necessary for every meal.

Annotated Cooking Notes: Yes, Canned beans can work, but dry beans taste so much better. But if you wanna toss something together quickly, go for the can.

Ingredients

1 lb dry Cannellini beans

1 or two heads of Swiss chard

2 cloves of garlic

2 spicy peppers

Olive oil

Bread crumbs

Directions

Put beans in a pot of water and bring to a light boil for two hours. You will need to make sure they are always covered by water and add more as necessary. You will also need to stir the beans, but don't use a spoon, as that will break the beans; just swish the pot around.

Clean your Swiss chard. There is a membrane that runs from the back of the stem to the leaf; remove that so the stem isn't as tough. Chop the chard into large chunks and boil in salt water for 7 or 8 minutes, then move to a bowl to cool.

Once your beans are done, you can now season them with 1 clove of garlic, a spicy pepper, and salt. Swish around and let them sit in water.

When you are ready to eat, heat up a pan with olive oil and add 1 clove of garlic and the last chili pepper. Sauté greens for 5 minutes to soak up the oil, add the beans, and let them cook together for 5 minutes.

Transfer to a bowl and top with bread crumbs and olive oil.