A week ago, I was thinking this would be a relatively dull week in terms of dinners. With all of the Birthday Dinner prep, I decided the meal plan would consist of diving into the stash of things I'd tossed in the ol' chest freezer after making too many servings of something or other over the last few months. This plan went by the wayside when a couple kick-ass people decided to share with me a bit of the bounty from their gardens. One cannot be faced with such fresh beautiful produce and still choose re-warmed frozen stuff. This meant an extra trip to Russo's, but was well worth it. First up was my office neighbor, who brought in some garlic scapes. I'd never actually heard of garlic scapes prior to the week they arrived on my desk, but a couple questions for my friend and a bit of googling left me convinced that making a Garlic Scape Pesto was the way to go. First up, my pretty, pretty garlic scapes:
I roughly (minus the whole "measuring things" part...) followed a recipe I found a link to here. The scapes go into my food processor...
They get all good and chopped up...
Then in go the toasted almonds, Parmesan, and olive oil...
Everything gets blended together...
... and you have yourself some Garlic Scape Pesto.
The best application for this seemed to be pasta. I have a spiffy new pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid (which will be employed while making Fava Bean Agnolotti with Curry Emulsion this weekend...), but I was far too exhausted to work for my supper this week, so I let Russo's hook me up with fresh pasta (for both this and the following dish). I randomly picked up a couple tomatoes as well, simply because they looked pretty...
I finished the dish with some grilled chicken breasts, and ended up with quite the delicious (if not super-gorgeous) dinner...
The pesto totally reminded me of something familiar, but I have no idea what. I love how the garlic flavor was so strong that it was spicy. I'm definitely a garlic scape fan now, and I hope I'll be able to get my hands on some more to try them grilled and/or on pizza in the not-too-distant future... The other awesomeness that arrived in my kitchen was a bag of fresh peas that my friend Lisa brought from her garden when she drove up for my dinner party. Have I ever mentioned that I love peas? Because I seriously LOVE fresh peas.
Mmm... Just looking at them makes me happy. I shelled them with a glass of wine and some crappy TV, and was ready to prep dinner...
When I think of peas, I think of a dish I made when I first started cooking in college, which involved sautéed (Cremini) mushrooms, (dry bowtie) pasta, (cheap domestic) prosciutto, (frozen) peas, and a cream sauce. I have since tried making a higher-end version of this with the totally kick-ass Porcini Ravioli from Russo's, and will most likely never make it any other way (other than with homemade Porcini Ravioli, of course...). Along with the fresh peas, I actually had some really nice prosciutto, some half & half, a shallot, and a hunk of good Parmesan left over from the dinner party, so it seemed like a sign from the universe that I should make this dish...
This was awesome, and quite happiness-inducing. I make my standard Emily-style cream sauce, in which minced shallot is sautéed in (Amish) butter, white wine is added and allowed to reduce to almost a syrup, then cream or half & half is added and simmers a bit to thicken. The sauce can then be strained or not, depending on how rustic you're feeling. After seasoning to taste, that yumminess is drizzled over the beautiful fresh ravioli... Top with blanched peas sautéed briefly in (Amish) butter and a little torn prosciutto... and (if you're me) you will be a very happy camper. Yummy.
This is another dish I don't really make for "people," because part of my love for it is definitely rooted in memories of the dumbed-down version bringing me comfort in college... so I'm pretty sure it's delicious, but I can't ever really be objectively certain... Anyway... The take-home message from this post is that you should definitely be nice to your friends who have gardens. If you don't have any friends with gardens yet, it might not be a bad idea to go ahead and befriend the keeper of the next kick-ass garden you wander past in your neighborhood. You won't be sorry...
I roughly (minus the whole "measuring things" part...) followed a recipe I found a link to here. The scapes go into my food processor...
They get all good and chopped up...
Then in go the toasted almonds, Parmesan, and olive oil...
Everything gets blended together...
... and you have yourself some Garlic Scape Pesto.
The best application for this seemed to be pasta. I have a spiffy new pasta roller attachment for my KitchenAid (which will be employed while making Fava Bean Agnolotti with Curry Emulsion this weekend...), but I was far too exhausted to work for my supper this week, so I let Russo's hook me up with fresh pasta (for both this and the following dish). I randomly picked up a couple tomatoes as well, simply because they looked pretty...
I finished the dish with some grilled chicken breasts, and ended up with quite the delicious (if not super-gorgeous) dinner...
The pesto totally reminded me of something familiar, but I have no idea what. I love how the garlic flavor was so strong that it was spicy. I'm definitely a garlic scape fan now, and I hope I'll be able to get my hands on some more to try them grilled and/or on pizza in the not-too-distant future... The other awesomeness that arrived in my kitchen was a bag of fresh peas that my friend Lisa brought from her garden when she drove up for my dinner party. Have I ever mentioned that I love peas? Because I seriously LOVE fresh peas.
Mmm... Just looking at them makes me happy. I shelled them with a glass of wine and some crappy TV, and was ready to prep dinner...
When I think of peas, I think of a dish I made when I first started cooking in college, which involved sautéed (Cremini) mushrooms, (dry bowtie) pasta, (cheap domestic) prosciutto, (frozen) peas, and a cream sauce. I have since tried making a higher-end version of this with the totally kick-ass Porcini Ravioli from Russo's, and will most likely never make it any other way (other than with homemade Porcini Ravioli, of course...). Along with the fresh peas, I actually had some really nice prosciutto, some half & half, a shallot, and a hunk of good Parmesan left over from the dinner party, so it seemed like a sign from the universe that I should make this dish...
This was awesome, and quite happiness-inducing. I make my standard Emily-style cream sauce, in which minced shallot is sautéed in (Amish) butter, white wine is added and allowed to reduce to almost a syrup, then cream or half & half is added and simmers a bit to thicken. The sauce can then be strained or not, depending on how rustic you're feeling. After seasoning to taste, that yumminess is drizzled over the beautiful fresh ravioli... Top with blanched peas sautéed briefly in (Amish) butter and a little torn prosciutto... and (if you're me) you will be a very happy camper. Yummy.
This is another dish I don't really make for "people," because part of my love for it is definitely rooted in memories of the dumbed-down version bringing me comfort in college... so I'm pretty sure it's delicious, but I can't ever really be objectively certain... Anyway... The take-home message from this post is that you should definitely be nice to your friends who have gardens. If you don't have any friends with gardens yet, it might not be a bad idea to go ahead and befriend the keeper of the next kick-ass garden you wander past in your neighborhood. You won't be sorry...
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