A Swiss Chard Lasagna with Gruyère and Hazelnuts for David Lebovitz

Plus: Dinner at Found Oyster, Swanky Berries, and Links.

Hey everyone,

Another rainy weekend in L.A. To be honest, I kind of love it? It’s probably the reason I’m excited to move back to the east coast… I love weather. Variety is the spice of life and when every day is perfect, Truman Show style, it gets a little bland.

But there’s nothing bland about this lasagna recipe I’m about to share with you! (How’s that for a transition?)

On Friday night, my friend the celebrated and widely beloved food writer David Lebovitz came to dinner with our pals Ryan and Jonathan and I made a wildly unexpected lasagna recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi that featured Swiss Chard, Gruyère, and Hazelnuts.

If that sounds weird, worry not! Somehow the combo of the greens with the nutty cheese works beautifully, and then the garlicky tomato sauce gives everything a nice zing, balanced texturally by the crunchy, toasty hazelnuts.

CLICK HERE for the recipe! And head over to my TikTok or Instagram to see a video of the recipe in progress. (I’d embed it here but I’m writing this before the videos publish so that’s too complex for my level of education.)

Now let’s talk about the dinner I had on Sunday night with my pals Jimmy and Raef. We went to Found Oyster, which is right near the Scientology Center, in case you’re trapped there and need a place to have dinner.

We were a group of four and there were no four tops inside so we ended up sitting outside in the rain under umbrellas. It was kind of cute!

When at Found Oyster a good thing to order is oysters. We ordered two dozen of them!? Plus a smoked trout salad.

The Ritz crackers tasted extra good after watching this week’s Top Chef (anyone? Am I the only one watching? Who are we rooting for?)

For my entree, I had a wedge salad and a clam chowder (not pictured). I thought it would be a lighter dinner. I was wrong.

After all this, I was kind of full, but we saved room for Nicole Rucker’s key lime pie from Fat & Flour. One of the great L.A. bites! I’ll miss it a lot.

On Sunday during the day, I went to the Atwater Village Farmer’s Market and bought berries. A trio of berries cost $15 but I didn’t mind when the berries look this beautiful:

If you’re wondering what those golden orbs are, I believe they’re gooseberries. They kind of taste like what would happen if a cherry tomato and a raspberry had a baby.

I can’t wait to eat them for breakfast this week with yogurt and the Naturally-Sweetened Granola I made and blogged about last week. CLICK HERE for that recipe, in case you missed it.

And now it’s time for links:

• The Best New Cookbooks of Spring 2023 (Eater);

• Are bay leaves bullshit? (I once got in trouble on Twitter for saying that… but I love that we’re still talking about it) (Stained Page News);

• Rachel Roddy’s recipe for Torta del Paradiso (The Guardian)

• The Best Sandwiches Should Surprise You (NYT).

That’s all for today folks!

In case you haven’t been keeping up with my diet journal, Operation Muffin Stud, I got down to 168.6 pounds on Thursday after 31 days having started at 174 pounds.

If you’d like to follow along on my journey, you just need to become a paid subscriber of The Amateur Gourmet Newsletter then click THIS LINK and enter your email address and I’ll manually sign you up.

All righty… see back here on Thursday!

Your pal,
Adam