scapes

We had our first CSA pick up Tuesday.  We got tons of wonderful stuff and I'm already thrilled that we decided to join.  Included in our goodies were garlic scapes.  What?  Yeah, I didn't know much about them either.  The first I had heard of them was from family last year when they were participating with a CSA.  Turns out the greens that sprout from the top of a head of garlic are rather delicious.  You can do a ton with them and they are pretty wacky looking.

You can incorporate them in lots of recipes and they blended nicely with our beef fajitas the other night.  They have a texture that reminds me of a green bean and a mild garlic/onion flavor.  I saw a recommendation to make pesto with them and since I have a basil plant, a pile of scapes and a husband who loves pesto it sounded like perfection to me.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup fresh basil leaves (loosely set in measuring cup)
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes*
• Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• A few generous grinds of black pepper
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese

 * feel free to add other herbs.  I added a smidge of flat leaf parsley because I love it with everything. 

Combine everything but the oil in a food processor and pulse until it starts to combine.  Then slowly add the olive oil while pulsing until blended.  Store in the fridge.  Also freezes well!

I went a little heavy with the cheese in mine.  I can't help it. 

We'll be serving our pesto with spaghetti tonight alongside grilled chicken that I'm marinating in some of the pesto, lemon juice and oil.  Oh, and a salad with some of the wonderful greens from the CSA.  It's only been a couple days but I already feel like we are eating more veggies.  I'm not the best at getting lots of varied veggies for us when shopping at the grocery store.  We generally end up eating lots of the same stuff over and over.  This is introducing some much needed variety to our diets and I'm glad to say our little one ate a pile of raw peas fresh from the pod yesterday and also tried his first radish.  Have you ever tried radishes with butter and salt?  So delicious!

Just smear some butter on and sprinkle with salt.

Mmmm... wish we had more.  I ate them all already : )