Basil, garlic scapes, and fusilli pasta from our vendors.
The pesto made during this week’s cooking demo was based on a recipe from the New York Times, which, by the way, has some great recipes in its collection. Since I wanted to to make enough so plenty could try a bite, I upped the amounts, albeit via “winging it” versus measuring. Luckily it came out great and all farmers with garlic scapes sold out. Which is, of course, the point. 🙂
Below is the recipe as posted on the NYT website. Click the recipe title to go directly to the original post; it has a lot of good information and advice in the text before the actual recipe.
Note: Someone (ahem) forgot to bring a lemon (as called for in the original recipe) to the market. Luckily, I had some rice vinegar in my Market Kitchen grocery item stash. Just a splash or two brought a touch of acidic bite that the lemon would have brought but without any tang of vinegar. I also did not add any salt to my batch of pesto.
To give the pesto a venue, I cooked up some Fresh Egg Fusilli from our vendor Deano’s Pasta, which was delicious on its own and the perfect mellow match for the spicy pesto. The garlic scapes were from Farmer Dave’s and the basil was from Flats Mentor Farm.
I am sure that, as written, this recipe produces and excellent pesto. But, don’t be afraid to experiment with amounts and ingredients; you can always adjust to taste at the end.
Garlic Scape Pesto
- 1 cup garlic scapes, sliced crosswise (about 10 to 12 scapes)
- ¼ cup raw sunflower seeds
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup basil leaves
- Juice of one lemon
- Place the garlic scapes in a food processor and pulse for 30 seconds
- Add the sunflower seeds and pulse for 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the olive oil and process on high for 15 seconds
- Add the Parmesan cheese and pulse until the ingredients are combined.
- Add the basil and lemon juice, and process until reaching the desired consistency.
- Add salt to taste and serve immediately.
Whatever you do when making this, have fun!
Cooking demo and recipe blog post by Wendy Dennis, WFM Market Manager