Umbrian lentils with honeynut squash and vegetables / lenticchie umbre con zucca e verdure

February 1, 2026February 21, 2026 | Simona

A plate of Umbrian lentils with honeynut squash and dark leafy greens — Small lentils with big personality
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the memoir Bite by Bite by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.¹ The book is a collection of 40 short essays, each centered on a specific food, ranging from fruit (lots of fruit, including rambutan, figs and mango), to spices (cinnamon, vanilla — cannella, vaniglia) to dishes, like lumpia and leche flan. Using the title food as starting point, each essay blends memories, meditations on aspects of life, and information about the food, in an evocative, lyrical language. The title aptly describes the way the book is presented and read.

Before selecting this book for our club, I knew and appreciated the author’s poetry, but was not familiar with her essays. I like how she uses a food to start a thread that weaves through memories with factual details sprinkled in. Reading most of the essays engendered a similar process for me. For example, the opening essay on rambutan made me travel to the Big Island and its wonderful farmers’ market, where, among many other fruit, you can find clusters of sweet, juicy rambutan.

clusters of rambutan — rambutan at a farmers’ market on the Big Island

The book doesn’t include recipes and rather than by one of the foods, I was inspired by the time of year and the food memory it elicited. To celebrate the New Year (Capodanno), I followed the tradition of eating lentils. My mother always prepared a pot of the delicious small lentils typical of my home region, lenticchie di Castelluccio. She cooked them with local sausages, another typical food.

I usually bring back a bag of lentils when I visit Italy. Besides the famous Castelluccio lentils, Colfiorito lentils are also grown in Umbria. They are likewise small, fast cooking and deeply flavored. Below is a photo from my favorite store in downtown Perugia, Antica Spezieria e Drogheria Eredi Bavicchi,² where I purchase this and other specialty legumes.

Besides the lentils, the dish includes honeynut squash and an assortment of leafy vegetables. For the latter, I use what I find at the farmers’ market, trying to create a balanced mix of flavors. Examples include: rainbow chard, red beet greens, radicchio di Treviso. Having one component of the dish variable means each time I make the dish it tastes unique. Note that in the case of rainbow chard and red beet greens, I cook also the stems, which I particularly like.

Umbrian lentils with honeynut squash and vegetables

Print Recipe

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 30

Time to cook the lentils 30

Total Time 1 20

Servings: 4

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

For the lentils

1/2 cup / 100 grams / 3 1/2 ounces Castelluccio lentils OR Colfiorito lentils OR other small lentils (like de Puy or black beluga) sorted and rinsed
1 cup + 2 tablespoons / 270 ml water
1 garlic clove unpeeled
1 small bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt

For the dish

4 ounces / 112 grams leek white and light green portion, clean weight (set aside the darker green portion to make broth or stock)
8 ounces / 225 grams honeynut squash
2 tablespoons / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound / 450 grams combination of vegetables (mostly leafy greens): for example, rainbow chard, Swiss chard red beet greens, radicchio di Treviso, salad turnip greens
3 garlic cloves minced
1 teaspoon Harissa spice mix
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt or to taste

Equipment

lidded 5-Qt cast-iron Dutch oven

Method

Place all the ingredients for the lentils except the salt in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook on low heat, covered, until lentils are tender.
Check after 20 minutes and estimate the time necessary to complete the cooking. If the lentils look dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of hot water.
When the lentils are done, add the salt and stir. Remove from the heat, retreive and discard the garlic and bay leaf and set aside.
Cut the leek in half lengthwise and slice into 1/8 inch / 3 mm half-moons. Rinse well in a colander, then place in a bowl and fill it with cold water. With your hands, swirl the leek to clean, then scoop out of the water with a sieve or slotted spoon and drain in a colander.
Peel and deseed the squash. I use a sturdy swivel vegetable peeler to peel the squash and a grapefruit spoon to remove the seeds.
Cut the squash into small bite-sized pieces, no more than ½ inch / 1.25 cm.
Wash and drain the vegetables, leaving a bit of water clinging to the leaves. Separate the stems from the leaves of chard and red beet greens and chop the stems.
Halve the leaves lengthwise, stack 5-6 at a time and cut them into 1-inch / 2.5-cm wide ribbons.
Warm up a lidded 5-qt cast-iron Dutch oven. Add the olive oil. When hot, add the leek, stir well, cook for 1 minute, then turn down the heat. Cover the pan and cook on low heat for 4 minutes, stirring often and making sure the pan does not become dry.
Add the garlic and Harissa to the pan and stir well.
After 1 minute, turn up the heat to medium, add the cut squash and stir well. Turn down the heat, cover and cook for 2 minutes.
Turn up the heat to medium, add the chopped stems, stir well and cover. Turn the heat down and cook until the squash is just tender, 6 minutes.
Turn up the heat to medium, add the sliced leaves and cover. Turn the heat down and let the leaves wilt for 1 minute, then stir well.
Cover and cook the vegetables on gentle heat for 10 minutes or so, until tender, stirring every now and then.
Turn up the heat to medium, add the lentils and their liquid (the amount should be small) to the pan and stir well. Cover and turn down the heat to low.
Continue cooking for 4 minutes or so, until the lentils are heated through.
Add the sea salt, give it a final stir and take off the heat. Serve warm.

Notes

If you purchase rainbow or Swiss chard with long stems included, use up to 6-7 inches / 15-18 cm for this dish and save the rest for another dish. Do not discard them: they are delicious, and so are red beet green stems.

This dish brings me to my home region and makes me feel I keep alive an ancient tradition.

¹The book’s page on the publisher’s website
² The Antica Spezieria e Drogheria Eredi Bavicchi
³ An unpeeled garlic clove is called uno spicchio d’aglio in camicia (where in camicia literally means: with the shirt on)

Click on the Play button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post

Cook the Books logo This is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by me, Simona of briciole. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

FTC disclosure: I have received the table linen free of charge from the manufacturer (la FABBRICA del LINO). I have not and will not receive any monetary compensation for presenting it on my blog. The experience shared and the opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.

fruity chard / bieta alla frutta

July 29, 2025December 25, 2025 | Simona

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fruity chard on serving plate — ready to be served
(placemat by La FABBRICA del LINO)

Our current Cook the Books Club selection is the historical novel A Bakery in Paris by Aimie Runyan¹, which alternates between the story of Lisette and that of her great-granddaughter Micheline. Both lived in Paris. Lisette’s story is set during the German siege (1870-1871)² and subsequent Commune (1871)³, that of Micheline immediately after the end of WWII.

Lisette is the original founder and owner of the title’s bakery, which Micheline reopens, offering the usual assortment of French pastries, prepared based on Lisette’s recipes (documented in a notebook and provided at the end of some of the chapters) and her culinary academy training.

One of the pastries is croquembouche (pièce montée). Years ago I made a version of it where I used melted chocolate (70% cocoa) instead of caramelized sugar (zucchero caramellato) to bind the choux pastry, because “I don’t like the contrast between the hard caramelized sugar and the lightly crisp bignè shell, which segues immediately into the soft filling. Melted chocolate offers, in my opinion, the perfect binding material: it provides stability by hardening into a layer of the right consistency, so the progression of taking one bite is: 1) crack thin layer of chocolate, 2) break crisp bignè shell, 3) glide into creamy filling. Basically, heaven.”⁴

After her husband, Théo, dies fighting with the Communards, Lisette, pregnant, is expected to marry her first fiancé and go to Provence (Provenza) with him until after giving birth. She ends up not going and not marrying him (again), but I decided to stay there for inspiration.

Tarte aux blettes is a Provencal dessert made with Swiss chard. While I was not interested in replicating it (we don’t eat dessert), I played with the idea of adding a sweet note to a vegetable I like and eat regularly.

For my first try, I bought a bunch of rainbow chard at the Little Wing Farm stand⁵ outside Point Reyes Station while I was riding my bicycle. I had planned to stop there, so had a couple of bags in my backpack. The chard was kept in a tub and I didn’t realize until I took up a bunch how big it was, with long colorful stems (which I adore!) and large leaves. When I put it in the backpack, the top stuck out giving me, I am sure, a curious appearance when riding.

At the San Rafael farmers’ market, where I shop when in the Bay Area, some vendors offer slightly blemished or overripe fruit at a discounted price, and I usually get some to add to dishes, like this one. This is the season of stone fruit and I decided to try pairing the chard with white nectarine (pesca noce or nettarina) first. I then tried using a peach (pesca), peeled, and also apricots (albicocche). All the fruit worked well. The sweetness balances the light bitter nuance of chard and the result is a side dish that nods towards dessert without being overly sweet.

Print-friendly version of briciole’s recipe for Fruity chard

Ingredients:

1 pound / 450 grams rainbow chard or Swiss chard, stems included, up to 6-7 inches / 15-18 cm (if you have more, save them for another dish: do not discard them)
4 ounces / 112 grams red spring onion
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons / 30 ml extra-virgin olive oil OR 1 tablespoon / 15 ml extra-virgin olive oil + 1 tablespoon / 15 grams unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon Harissa spice mix
2 tablespoons / 30 ml warm water if needed
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt, or to taste
4 ounces fruit (e.g., nectarine, peach, apricot), clean weight

Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic.

Separate the chard stems from the leaves and chop the stems. Halve the leaves lengthwise, stack 5-6 at a time and cut them into 1-inch / 2.5-cm wide ribbons.

Warm up a 5-qt cast iron Dutch oven and add the olive oil. When hot, add the onion and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes, then add the stems and sprinkle the Harissa spice mix and thyme. Stir well and cover. Turn the heat down to medium-low.

Cook for 8 minutes or until the onion is soft, stirring often.

Add the garlic and stir. After 1 minute add the chard. Cover and cook for 1 minute to let the chard wilt, then stir. Cover and cook for another 7 minutes or until the chard is tender.

In the meantime, cut the fruit into 3/4 inch / 2 cm- side cubes. If using a peach, peel it first.

When the chard is almost cooked, add the fruit, stir and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from the heat, sprinkle the sea salt and stir. Transfer to a plate and serve.

Serves 3

close up of plated fruity chard — A closer look

I like to eat this side dish alongside a more decidedly savory one, like mixed vegetables with thyme⁶ or the roasted vegetable medley I prepare weekly using zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, mushrooms, roasted corn and garlic.

¹The book’s page on the publisher’s website
²The siege of Paris
³ The Commune of Paris
⁴ From briciole’s archive: profiterole
⁵ Little Wing Farm Instagram page
⁶ From briciole’s archive: Mixed vegetables with thyme

Click on the Play button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post

Cook the Books logo This is my contribution to the current selection of our Cook the Books hosted by Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. (You can find the guidelines for participating in the event on this page.)

The roundup of the event.

riso rosso bhutanese con bietola novella / Bhutanese red rice with baby Swiss chard

February 6, 2011 | Simona

[cliccare il link per andare alla versione in italiano]

This story starts with a plan for risotto with baby Swiss chard (bietola, also called bieta) from my little vegetable garden. That was Plan A and it had to be shelved due to an insufficient amount of Carnaroli rice in the box. Plan B, which entailed the use of Arborio rice, had to be shelved too, for the same reason. Clearly, my pantry (dispensa) inventory tracking system is not working properly.

Plan C started to take the shape of using whole-grain Carnaroli rice, when the small bag of red Bhutanese rice found itself in the trajectory of my hand. I resisted the idea: red Swiss chard would not stand out, color-wise, when cooked with red rice. On the other hand, this red rice is really good. I relented: I would use the red rice, but the dish would still be a risotto with baby Swiss chard.

I have a deep respect for my little chard plants. They withstood several intense storms during the Holidays and put out tender leaves (foglioline, diminutive of foglie, leaves). They are currently enjoying a spell of nice weather (bel tempo), some well-deserved sun after days and nights of rain and wind. Besides red, I also have a few yellow chard plants (the color refers to the chard stalks), but their leaves were not quite ready to be picked, so I kept my original plan to use only red chard for the risotto.

Bhutanese red rice is flavorful and quite nutritious. According to this page, it is the only product exported by Bhutan, a kingdom on the Himalayas. If you go to the page of the importer of the rice¹, you can read:

Bhutanese Red Rice has been grown for thousands of years at 8,000 feet in the fertile soil of the Paro Valley, irrigated with 1,000-year-old glacier water rich in trace minerals… this quick-cooking whole grain is a nutritional and culinary superstar. It will entice you with its complex, nutty, earthy flavor, soft texture and beautiful russet color.

For the original risotto plan I had set aside some freshly made leek vegetable stock. It's a vegetable stock prepared according to the recipe for Quick Vegetable Stock from "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, made with less onion and the roots and dark green leaves of leeks that have been discarded from other cooking projects.

Print-friendly version of briciole's recipe for Bhutanese red rice with baby Swiss chard

Ingredients:

olive oil
a small shallot, minced
1 cup Bhutanese red rice
1 and 1/2 cup homemade vegetable stock + 1 cup water
a generous splash of white wine (vino bianco), not cold
8-10 leaves of colored baby chard, or a handful of baby spinach leaves (spinaci novelli, see Variation below)
salt, to taste
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano

Wash the baby chard leaves, cut the stalks and chop them finely. Bring the diluted stock to a simmer in a saucepan. In another saucepan, warm up half to one tablespoon of olive oil, then add the shallot. Cook on low for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped chard stalks and continue cooking for several more minutes, until the shallot is translucent. Add the rice and let it toast for one minute, then add the white wine. Let the wine evaporate, while stirring the rice, then add enough broth to cover the rice. Continue to add the simmering broth, a ladleful at a time, letting the rice absorb it. Keep the risotto at a nice simmer and stir it at regular intervals. Make sure the rice is always quite wet. (This rice behaves differently from Carnaroli or Arborio when cooked risotto style.)

After 30 minutes, add the chard leaves, cut into ribbons. Continue cooking until the rice is done (5-7 minutes). Add 1/4 cup of parmigiano reggiano. Stir until the cheese is melted, then let the risotto rest, covered, for a few minutes while you gather the guests around the table. Adjust the salt. Serve with additional parmigiano reggiano on the side.

Variation: you can make this recipe using a handful of baby spinach, left whole, added at the same time as you would add the chard leaves.

The result is a departure from traditional risotto, but a tasty one. You eat something special and you know it. My husband now calls this "my favorite rice." (I may have generated a monster here.)

This is my contribution to edition #269 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Janet from Taste Space.

This post contains the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

riso rosso bhutanese con bietola novella

or launch the riso rosso bhutanese con bietola novella audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

¹The link is for information only: it is not an advertisement. I do not have a business relationship with the company referenced.

[jump to Comments]

riso rosso bhutanese con bietola novella

Questa storia comincia con lidea di fare un risotto utilizzando bietola dal mio orticello. Purtroppo ho dovuto cambiare tale idea perché mi sono accorta di non avere abbastanza riso carnaroli e neppure arborio. Il mio sistema di controllo delle scorte evidentemente non funziona bene.

L'idea numero 3, cioè utilizzare il carnaroli integrale è stata sovvertita dall'incontro tra la mia mano e il pacchetto di riso rosso bhutanese. Non ero convinta perché riso rosso e bietola con le coste rosse non fanno un buon contrasto di colore. D'altra parte, questo riso rosso è davvero buono. Così ho deciso di usarlo cuocendolo come un risotto.

La mia bietola ha resistito al maltempo del mese di Dicembre e ora gode del tepore di alcuni giorni di sole. Ho alcune piantine di bietola gialla (cioè con le coste gialle), oltre a quelle di bietola rossa, ma le foglie erano ancora un po' piccole e quindi ho tagliato solo delle foglie dalle piante di bietola rossa. (So che la bieta rossa si trova anche in Italia, per lo meno a Verona. Qui negli USA, la bietola colorata si chiama col nome generico di "rainbow chard", ovvero "bietola arcobaleno" e viene venduta a mazzi composti da coste di vario colore, come potete vedere in questa foto da un mio post di qualche tempo fa.)

Il riso rosso bhutanese è gustoso e nutriente. Secondo il testo su questa pagina, è l'unico prodotto esportato dal Bhutan, uno stato che si trova sull'Himalaya. Sul sito web dell'azienda che importa il riso rosso, si può leggere (traduzione mia):

Il riso rosso bhutanese è coltivato da migliaia di anni a 2400 metri di altitudine nella Paro Valley e irrigato con acqua di ghiacciaio ricca di minerali… questo riso integrale cuoce rapidamente.

Per fare il risotto avevo messo da parte del brodo vegetale preparato con meno cipolla e foglie e radici di porro scartati da un altro progetto culinario (la ricetta per il brodo vegetale che uso è dal libro "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" di Deborah Madison).

Ingredienti:

olio d'oliva
un piccolo scalogno tagliato finemente
200 g di riso rosso bhutanese
350 ml di brodo vegetale fatto in casa + 250 ml di acqua
un generoso spruzzo di vino bianco, non freddo
8-10 foglie di bietola novella colorata, o una manciata di spinaci novelli (vedi "Variazione" in basso)
sale a piacere
parmigiano reggiano grattugiato al momento

Lavare la bietola e separare le costine, che taglierete a pezzetti. Portare a ebollizione il brodo vegetale diluito e mantenerlo a leggero bollore. Scaldare un cucchiaio di olio d'oliva e aggiungere uno scalogno piccolo tritato finemente. Cuocere a fuoco basso per un paio di minuti, poi aggiungere le coste tagliate e continuare a cuocere per qualche altro minuto finché lo scalogno è traslucido.

Aggiungere il riso e tostare per un minuto, poi aggiungere il vino bianco. Far evaporare il vino mescolando il riso e poi aggiungere abbastanza brodo da coprire il riso. Continuare ad aggiungere il brodo, un mestolo alla volta, lasciando tempo al riso di assorbirlo e mescolando ad intervalli regolari. Mantenere il riso bagnato. (Questo tipo di riso si comporta diversamente da carnaroli o arborio quando è preparato stile risotto.)

Dopo 30 minuti, aggiungere la bieta tagliata a striscioline. Continuare a cuocere fino a che il riso è pronto (5-7 minuti). Aggiungere 3-4 cucchiai di parmigiano reggiano e incorporare nel riso. Far riposare per alcuni minuti. Correggere il sale e servire con parmigiano grattugiato a tavola.

Variazione: al posto della bietola, utilizzare una manciata di foglie di spinaci novelli lasciate intere.

Il risultato è un piatto diverso dal risotto tradizionale, ma molto gustoso.

Questo è il mio contributo all'edizione numero 269 di Weekend Herb Blogging, un evento creato da Kalyn di Kalyn's Kitchen, organizzato ora da Haalo di Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once e la cui versione italiana è organizzata e questa settimana anche ospitata da Brii di Briggis recept och ideer.

Questo post contiene il riepilogo dell'evento.

involtini di bietole / rainbow chard roll-ups

October 16, 2010 | Simona

I ♥ colored varieties of Swiss chard (the Italian word for chard is bietola, plural bietole, also called bieta). When I bought the leaf in the photo and its companions at the farmers' market, my intent was to make involtini with them. I guess I am in an involtini phase (see my recent post on involtini di peperoni).

To make sure I prepared the chard leaves properly, I turned to my main resource in the kitchen, "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" by Deborah Madison, where in fact I found an explanation of how to prepare the leaves as part of the recipe for Chard Rolls with Winter Vegetables. From that recipe I took also the idea of chopping the chard stalks and central ribs that were cut off to make the leaves rollable and add them to the filling (ripieno). As I have written in a recent post, I like chard stalks (coste) a lot.

As part of the filling, I decided to use hulless barley, of which I have a steady supply as part of my grain CSA share. I cooked half a cup of barley the way I described in this recent post, then took half of it and added it to the other ingredients of the filling at the end. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Ingredients for the filling:

half a medium red onion (cipolla rossa), finely chopped
a shallot (scalogno), finely chopped
the leaves of a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 carrots, finely diced
the chard stalks, diced (see Note below)
2 tablespoons of raisins (uvetta), rehydrated in lukewarm water for 10-15 minutes
a sprinkling of cinnamon and of allspice
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
half a cup of hulless barley, prepared as the described in this post, then halved (you can use the leftover barley in many ways, for example, add it to a soup)
freshly grated cheese (optional: I used some of my homemade Wensleydale cheese)

Note: The bunch of rainbow chard I bought at the farmers' market had short stalks, which I cut, and also cut a couple of inches of the central rib, so that I could later roll the cooked leaf easily. The result is a heart-shaped leaf of sort.

I boiled the chard leaves for four minutes, in two batches to avoid overcrowding the pot, drained and spread them on a towel. They certainly require a bit of care in handling.

Preparing the filling:

warm up some olive oil in a pan
add onion, shallot and thyme and cook for a few minutes
add carrots and chard stalks and cook, covered, adding some water as needed to prevent sticking (I used some of the chard cooking water)
when vegetables are tender, add barley and raisins, drained
add cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper and stir well

Assembling the involtini and finishing the dish:

place a chard leaf smooth side down (another instruction from Deborah Madison's recipe mentioned above)
place 2 tablespoons of filling above the cut you made to remove the hard part of the main rib
cut a bit more, if needed, so that the rolling is smooth
if the bottom flaps of a leaf break off, set aside, then, at the end, chop and add to the leftover filling
fold the long edges in over filling, then roll the leaf up along the other direction
place roll-ups over remaining filling (another idea from Deborah Madison's recipe mentioned above)
add half a cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes
after 5 minutes, sprinkle cheese on some roll-ups (that is what I did, to try the difference)
serve immediately

Both versions of the involtini were excellent. I particularly like that the filling makes also the accompaniment. I am also happy about the way the dish looks: I think the photo speaks by itself.

This is my contribution to edition #255 of Weekend Herb Blogging, an event started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen, now organized by Haalo of Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once and hosted this week by Prof. Kitty of The Cabinet of Prof. Kitty.

This post has the roundup of the event.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

involtini di bietole

or launch the involtini di bietole audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Update: I am submitting the first photo of this post to a special end-of-the-year contest currently ongoing at the about food site (in Italian). Twelve photos will be chosen by about food editors and they will be featured in their calendar.