Sauce de Cardes

Name: Sauce de Cardes (Gratin of Swiss Chard)
Cuisine: France
Ingredients: several sprigs of thyme; 1 onion, finely sliced; Glass of white wine; 2 bay leaves; 2 anchovy fillets, crushed; 2 tbsp/30 ml flour, sifted; 1 clove of garlic, peeled and crushed; 2 tbsp/30 ml olive oil; salt & pepper; salt & pepper; 3 tbsp/45 ml grated gruyère; ¼ tsp/1.25 ml nutmeg; handful of small black olives; 2 lb/1 kg swiss chard stalks, washed and stripped of tough strings (or celery, if chard is not available); 2 lb/1 kg swiss chard stalks, washed and stripped of tough strings (or celery, if chard is not available); juice of 1 lemon; 2 lb/1 kg swiss chard stalks, washed and stripped of tough strings (or celery, if chard is not available)

Gratin of Swiss Chard

Preparation info

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

A Table in Provence

By Leslie Forbes

Published 1987

About

In the Lubéron and Vaucluse regions a ‘sauce’ is another name for a creamy vegetable stew enriched and bubbled brown in the oven. ‘Cardes’ are the stalks of mature swiss chard or ‘blettes’.

Ingredients

2 lb/1 kg swiss chard stalks, washed and stripped of tough strings (or celery, if chard is not available)
juice of

Europe
France
Provence
Side dish
Main course
Starter
Pescatarian

Method

Cut the chard into l in/2.5 cm pieces and boil for 20 minutes with lemon juice, wine, bay leaves, thyme & enough water to just cover. In a flameproof dish (big enough to hold all the ingredients) soften the onion and garlic in the olive oil, stir in the anchovies, and sprinkle the flour over. Stir for a minute or two and then begin to add the strained, still-warm liquid from the chard littl