Accidental Locavore's Recipe For Swiss Chard Gnocchi (Merda De Can)

When you live in Maine, most people have gardens, both vegetable and flower. The Accidental Locavore's parents have neighbors with amazing gardens and now that summer is at its peak, they're all looking to share the wealth. Part of the problem with gardens is that there often just aren't enough people to eat it all and while some vegetables like beans and cauliflower can be pickled or preserved, the same just isn't true for things like Swiss chard. We were the happy recipients of a huge bunch of chard and it gave the Accidental Locavore an excuse to try a Nicoise specialty-gnocchi made from Swiss chard and locally referred to as Merda de can. Since wifi is not easily accessible at my parent's house, we had to make due with those twentieth-century artifacts, cookbooks. Found a reasonable recipe for spinach gnocchi in Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking and went from there. Here's the recipe we adapted which fed five with leftovers to send as a thank-you to Lola: