Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic Scapes

June is the month for garlic scapes, the flowering stalk and immature flower head of the garlic plant. Garlic scapes taste very much like garlic cloves but are a little less intense. 

Following is a recipe for garlic scape pesto adapted from epicurious.com  from Ian Knauer's book The Farm :

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of pesto which can be mixed with pasta, rice, quinoa or spread on little toasts or crackers.

Needed:

10 garlic scapes

1/3 cup unsalted pistachios (you can use any nut/seed here, we used sunflower seeds)

1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Salt and Pepper to taste

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Reserve the oil, salt and pepper. Puree all the other ingredients in a food processor or blender (it helps to chop the scapes before putting them in). With the motor running, slowly begin pouring the oil through the opening and continue until you've poured in all the oil. The mixture will be fairly thick when you're finished. Salt and pepper to taste. The pesto will keep for a week in the fridge or frozen for a month.

To use, prepare a batch of pasta, rice, quinoa etc. and mix the pesto in to taste. Alternatively it can be used as a spread. Delicious!

Lettuce, lettuce everywhere

I'm reposting this salad recipe as it's one of my favorites and a great way to use the lettuce included in this week's CSA bag:

Enjoy this recipe for a French rice salad that can be eaten as an entire meal:

Ingredients:

Lettuce

Rice

Vinegar (balsamic or red wine)

Olive oil

Eggs

Fresh or canned tuna / salmon / chicken / beef strips*

Salt

Black pepper

Rinse your lettuce and arrange leaves in individual bowls.

Prepare rice (2 cups rice, 2 cups water, simmer until water evaporates)

Boil eggs (1 egg per person)

When rice is cooked, spoon equal portions into each bowl over the lettuce. The hot rice will wilt the lettuce.

Generously sprinkle equal parts oil and vinegar over the rice and lettuce (about 2 tablespoons each of oil and vinegar).

Peel the hard boiled eggs and slice in halves or quarters and arrange around the perimeter of the bowl.

Place your tuna in the center of the bowl over the rice. (If you used fresh tuna, cook it to your liking).

Season with salt and pepper and serve.

*We like to use Fried Dace with Salted Black Beans available at C.A.M. (Columbus Asian Market) on Bethel road. Dace is a fish that is deep fried and canned in oil with salted black beans. It's delicious, not at all fishy but deeply satisfying.