Last Night's Dinner - Rotini with Garlic Scape Pesto, Garlic Scape Bread, and a Cherry Blueberry Salad with Almonds

While it still seems to be taking up a good portion of the fridge, Tim and I have started attacking the By the Bushel produce. It gives us a good reason to experiment with things. Tim especially likes this kind of explorative cooking. I like that it makes me find new recipes. 

Tim trying the rhubarb ginger syrup out with champagne. He liked it, I didn't - but I think that's because I don't really like champagne. I want to try the syrup with some tonic water and white rum, or maybe even with Sprite to give it some sweetness. 

Dinner!

Our starter salad - rip a bunch of mesclun greens into bite sized pieces. Pit some cherries and cut them in half. Add cherries and a handful of blueberries to salad. Whisk together even parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar with a little bit of truffle mustard. Season dressing with salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Dress salad. Garnish with bacon bits, sliced almonds, and freshly grated parmegiano reggiano cheese.

Our main course was a garlic scape pesto pasta with garlic scape garlic bread. Tim wanted to make the pesto by hand, but I made him use the Magic Bullet instead, because I was really wanting to see how it worked. It was pretty cool - like a blender, there definitely needs to be enough liquid in there if you're working with wetish ingredients. Making the topping for the garlic bread didn't really puree the scapes at all, which was okay. The long pieces of scape actually looked really pretty.

Garlic Scape Garlic Bread

1/8 cup butter, softened

2 garlic scapes, cut into 2-3" pieces

2 cloves garlic

1 baguette, cut into thin slices on the diagonal

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Grated parmegiano reggiano

Preheat broiler in oven. Cover a baking sheet with tin foil.

Put butter, scapes, and garlic into Magic Bullet with cross blades. Pulse until garlic is minced and garlic scapes are broken down. Spread mixture on baguette slices. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with parmegiano reggiano. Put under broiler until cheese is bubbly - watch closely! Burns VERY quickly!

Rotini with Garlic Scape Pesto

Serves 4, or 2 with leftovers

1 lb rotini pasta

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces

1 zucchini, cut lengthwise, then into 1 cm wide half-disks

1 bell pepper, cut into small chunks

1/2 bundle of garlic scapes

Generous handful of basil leaves

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup of chunks of parmegiano reggiano

Olive oil

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Bring a large pot of well-salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until al dente. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of pasta water.

Season chicken with salt and pepper and saute until cooked over medium heat. Remove to a bowl and cover. In the same pan, saute zucchini and pepper with salt and pepper until tender. Add chicken back to vegetables.

In Magic Bullet, pulse scapes, basil, garlic, and parmegiano reggiano with enough olive oil to form a thick, chunky paste. Season with lots of salt and pepper. This will smell and taste VERY pungent at this point - don't worry. As soon as you apply heat the garlic scapes really come down in flavour.

Dump pasta into saute pan with veggies and chicken (or vice versa, if your saute pan isn't large enough). Add pesto to taste. Add some or all of the pasta water until you have coated all of the pasta mix with pesto. Taste for seasoning. Serve with freshly cracked black pepper and grated parmegiano reggiano.