Penne with Swiss chard and cauliflower

I'm doing my best refrigerator clean-out meal tonight. I purchased a large head of cauliflower last week for a salad and didn't use any of it. I also bought a large bunch of Swiss chard yesterday. I planned on making the chard today, but needed some creativity to enjoy it as a main dish. I make leafy greens as a side dish often, but tonight, it was the main course.

Botanically, Swiss chard belongs to the beet family. It can be cooked and prepared similar to spinach, kale and beet leaves or added to a salad. The chard I used had multi-colored stalks, or rainbow chard. Swiss chard is a "super food" and contains many phytonutrients, including anti-oxidant vitamin-C, vitamin-K for bone strength, omega-3 fatty acids, folates and thiamin (essential for optimum cellular metabolic functions). It's also a rich source of minerals like copper, sodium, potassium, calcium and iron. Usually, leafy greens need a little help with flavor.

I started by boiling the cauliflower. At the same time, I sauteed onions in olive oil and later added garlic and green peppers. When they were fully cooked, I added the Swiss chard. Don't be alarmed by the volume consumed by the chard. As it cooks, it wilts. In the meantime, I took the cauliflower out of the water with a slotted spoon and used the same water for the penne pasta.

When the pasta was al dente, I drained the water and mixed all the ingredients together in the [pasta] pot. I also added fresh chopped basil. As I mixed everything, I kept in the pot on the burner so everything was the same temperature. I dusted it with grated mozzarella to serve.

It was great.

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion (chopped)
1 head cauliflower, cored and separated into very small flowerettes
1 green pepper (chopped)
1 pound penne
2 large cloves garlic (minced)
1 pound Swiss chard, rinsed and roughly chopped
Salt to taste
4 ounces mozzarella