6th
Garlic scape + lemon basil pesto
I love pesto. As a kid, one of the first meals I learned to “cook” was pesto (storebought) with pasta. These days, suffice it say, I’ve taken it up a notch. (Actually, come to think of it, even back in the day I would sometimes toast pine nuts in a pan and throw them on top. Yum.)
Classic pesto is basil, pine nuts, parmesan cheese, and olive oil. But you can make a delicious pesto with just about any kind of fresh herb and complimentary nuts and hard cheese. One thing I like about DC is our access to farmers markets all around the city on different days of the week. I was poking around the Penn Quarter farmers market this week and found garlic scapes and super-fragrant lemon basil. I immediately thought, PESTO.
You can almost smell it through the series of tubes:
The meal was delicious. I’ve made pesto with garlic scapes (or green garlic) several times in the past, and it always provides a super-spicy bite to the sauce. At the same time, garlic scapes lack the overwhelming pungency of raw garlic cloves, so they don’t completely take over the dish. If you’ve never used garlic scapes before, I highly recommend a trip to the farmers’ market in the next few weeks before the season ends! The lemon basil, on the other hand, was a first for me. The fresh herb smells intensely citrusy, like a huge bowl of citrus zest. In fact, it made my messenger bag smell like lemons for days. The classic basil smell is more muted, so the herb doesn’t have quite the intense scent (or flavor) that we normally associate with basil. That ended up being a major plus in this dish: the lemon basil combined with garlic scapes for a lemon-peppery flavor.
I garnished this with salted Adlai Stevenson tomatoes, also from the farmers market. (Grilled chicken is great too…)
By the way, if you have the leftovers for lunch the next day, they will be delicious but the garlicy flavor will be more muted. Don’t make this dish ahead of time.
PASTA WITH GARLIC SCAPE AND LEMON BASIL PESTO
2 bunches garlic scapes
1 bunch lemon basil, leaves removed from stems
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/3 cup pine nuts
salt
1 lb pasta
3 tomatoes, wedged
1. Boil pasta until al dente in heavily salted water.
2. In food processor, blend garlic scapes, basil leaves, olive oil, large pinch of salt, cheese and nuts. Adjust consistency with pasta cooking water and/or olive oil.
3. Dress pasta with pesto and garnish with salted tomatoes.
