Garlic Scape Pesto

I am in love with garlic scapes!  Prior to getting them in our CSA box I'd never heard of them before, but now I know how great they are!  When Zach texted me after picking up the CSA box on Wednesday afternoon I immediately googled 'garlic scapes.' I found people raving over them and some valuable information.  Basically they are the tops of the garlic plant.  They need to be cut off so that the garlic blubs in the ground can absorb more of the energy from the rest of the plant and therefore grow bigger.  I found this recipe and blog entry from The Washington Post and knew we'd be making it. 

Pesto is a dish that has recently been added to my food world.  We never had it growing up, and when I did become exposed to it I shied away because of the pine nuts.  I'm just not a huge pine nut fan, I didn't like any nuts until the past few years really.  but once I discovered that it could easily be made with almonds - my NOC (Nut Of Choice), I figured I'd give it a try.  We made pesto for the first time last year with some homegrown basil and this is our second foray into the homemade pesto world.  For this recipe the garlic scapes replace the basil.  Add some almonds, olive oil, parmesan, salt and pepper and you've got a wonderful pesto ready for many applications!  Later this week I'll be posting a pasta dish and a pizza made with the pesto, both of which were delicious.  The season for garlic scapes is only a few weeks, so I hope we get them at least once more.  We've made this twice now and each time we have frozen about half the pesto to be used later -- probably in the dead of winter when it will remind us of the lovely spring veggies to come. 

Garlic Scape Pesto
adapted from A Mighty Appetite, found on washingtonpost.com


Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup almonds
2/3 cup olive oil
1/2 cup grated parmigiano 

1/2 teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Place scapes and almonds in the bowl of a food processor and process until well combined and somewhat smooth. 
• Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. 
• Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. 

Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

Blueberry Balsamic Barbeque Sauce

This is my entry for the What's Cooking? Ingredient Challenge! Blueberries are not my favorite fruit, in fact, I'm not really a fruit person at all, so I was a little nervous about having blueberries as an ingredient challenge. I thought about going the simple, tried and true route with blueberry muffins or pancakes or coffee cake and figured Zach would get to reap all the benefits. So, I started searching through my (many) cookbooks. In my Best of Cooking Light I found a pleasant surprise -- this recipe for Blueberry Blasamic Barbeque Sauce. Zach loves balsamic vinegar, so I figured it was worth a try.

I made the sauce and we had it on some pork spare ribs -- yum! It was tart and sweet and a nice spin on traditional barbeque sauce. It did stain the meat a purple color, as would be expected, but still looks rather odd. If I make it again I would probably add some diced onion and garlic in with, I think it would benefit from some fresh flavors instead of the dried garlic powder. I also added in a few grinds of black pepper and one shake of cayenne pepper. I might also up the balsamic to 1/3 or 1/2 cup, as it is a flavor Zach and I love.

It makes quite a bit, so we have plans to use some next week on chicken breasts. Mmmm, purple chicken breasts - haha!

Blueberry Balsamic Barbeque Sauce

The Best of Cooking Light

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: about 1/4 cup)

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh blueberries

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 tablespoons sugar

3 tablespoons ketchup

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until slightly thick. Remove from heat; cool. Place blueberry mixture in a blender; process until smooth.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 67

Fat: 0.2g

Protein: 0.5g

Carbohydrate: 16.9g

Fiber: 1.4g