Garlic Scape and Arugula Pesto

Pesto is one of the most common uses for the seasonal yield of garlic scapes.  This time the Ithatarians decided to add the peppery taste of arugula to the mix since it too came with this week’s share.  In this first installment of recipe sharing, you’ll also learn that IthaJon rarely cooks from recipes, choosing instead to add ingredients according to imagination and taste.  So, apologies for what here are are very rough estimates of quantity and also for the graininess of the photo (the camera’s settings weren’t right). 

Garlic Scape and Arugula Pesto

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

• Four or five garlic scapes.
• Two cups of arugula.
• One cup of grated parmesan cheese
• Almonds, peanuts, or pine nuts.
• Two cups of penne or your favorite pasta. (We used whole wheat)
• Olive oil.
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste. 

Specialty Tools:

• Food processor or blender.

Cook two cups of pasta to just before desired softness (it’ll finish cooking later). Do not discard all of the the pasta water. 

Chop the garlic scapes evenly and put them in the food processor.  Adding small amounts of olive oil, blend the scapes to a paste-like consistency.  Empty the paste into a medium sauce pan.  Chop the arugula leaves similarly and likewise blend them to a paste in the processor, adding olive oil to achieve the right consistency.  Add the arugula paste to the scape paste.  Take a moment to enjoy the fragrant smell of the green mix. 

Normally, pesto is made with pine nuts but they can be quite expensive and the Ithatarians don’t really keep them around the kitchen.  If you have them and prefer them, go ahead!  But if you’re like us and are more likely to have peanuts or almonds, take a heaping handful of the nut of your choice and chop it up in the food processor.  We used almonds in this recipe and they gave the pesto a rich taste.  Add your chopped nuts to the mix in the saucepan.  

Heat the chopped mix in the saucepan over medium heat.  Stir.  Add olive oil to the point of saturation (when it no longer absorbs into the mix).  Turn heat to low and let the ingredients cook together for a few minutes.  Add pre-cooked pasta and mix until pesto is evenly distributed.  Stir in the cheese.  It’s going to get dry and sticky now as a the cheese melts.  Add tablespoons of the water you cooked your pasta in until the pesto is creamy.  

Taste.  Add more of anything you’d like to fit your taste preference, including the salt and pepper.  

You can serve this hot or cold.  We tried both.  Enjoy!

Close up!

Our friends the Gastronauts (a link to their blog is at left) have had a food blog now for a few years and we’ve long been trying their recipes and gazing at the beautiful photos that they place online.  Enjoying the gastronomic arts ourselves, we’ve decided to join them and become fellow food bloggers.  

Today is a good day to start blogging since this morning we picked up our first CSA share of the year.  This is IthaJon’s fourth year as a member of a CSA, his third with the Full Plate Farm Collective.  It’s BrigIthaca’s second CSA year, both with Full Plate.  In fact, the Ithatarians culinary ties to the Gastronauts go back to IthaJon’s first foray into the world of CSAs.  IthaJon was going out of town for a week and called upon the Gastronauts to feed his cat.  In exchange for their help, he offered them his farm share for the week.  They were hooked!

In the coming days we’ll be preparing meals with the produce pictured above:

radish, turnip, kale, collard greens, red potatoes, head lettuce, arugula, spring mix, and IthaJon’s personal favorite, garlic scapes.  

Garlic scapes are one of the world’s little-known food treasures. One learns to love them after bringing them home from the farm and being beguiled by what to do with them.  Available only once a year, garlic scapes are the shoots that are cut off garlic plants so that the bulb has the energy to mature into the thing we like to eat.  The scapes have a faint garlic taste and can be sauted with onions, chopped into a pesto, and used in any way that regular garlic can be.  This year we’re probably going to use them in a scape/arugula pesto. Stay tuned.  For now, try this:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2006/06/my_friend_the_garlic_scape_1.html