Ramps Pesto

I got the most beautiful bunches of ramps this week. If you haven't tried these beautiful wild leeks, you need to go find them at a farmer's market. They have a flavor that combines onion and garlic flavors. I discovered these 3 years ago in my first year of the CSA and now they are my most-anticipated item. This year, I decided to do double duty with my ramps. I am making pesto from the leaves and I will pickle the bulbs. Look at how beautiful these are!

Ramps Pesto

•  2 bunches ramps leaves*
•  1/2 cup romano cheese
•  1/4 cup pine nuts
•  olive oil
•  1 Tbsp lemon juice

 Wash ramps and cut into 1-1/2 inch pieces. Place ramps, cheese and nuts into blender with 1/4 cup olive oil. Puree, drizzling more olive oil as needed, until pesto is right consistency. Add lemon juice to taste. Pour pesto into an ice-cube tray to freeze if not using right away.

*CSA ingredients

 To come: Chicken in the crockpot

Garlic Scapes!!!

One of the biggest perks of getting CSA shares is the variety of vegetables that you could receive.  This week we got garlic scapes, yet another first for me.  Garlic scapes are the green shoots that grown out of garlic cloves.  They are curly and may have flowers on them.  And there is a variety of things that you can make with them.  They can be sauteed and used in place of garlic and/or onions.  But what intrigued me most was the idea of making pesto with them.  This is where another first comes in.  I have never made pesto before.  Being a bit Italian, I love a good fresh pesto and this sounded like a great idea.  Besides, I picked up some pignolia when I was at the market earlier this week, so there's another reason to give it a try!

The batch of scapes we received was less than what was called for in any recipe that I looked at (I like to look at many recipes and then create my own).  I also got a nice bunch of fresh spinach in my package, so I decided to supplement the scapes with spinach.  Here's what I came up with:

Garlic Scape & Spinach Pesto

• 1 bunch of garlic scapes (about 1/4 lb)*
• 4 large leaves spinach (or 1 cup baby spinach)*
• 3/4 C grated parmesan
• 1/2 C fresh lemon juice
• Olive oil
• 1/3 C pine nuts

Wash scapes and spinach; dry.  Cut garlic scapes into 4" pieces (including flowers); place in blender.  Break spinach leaves up into bite-sized pieces; place in blender.  Add parmesan cheese and lemon juice and begin blending.  Slowly add olive oil while blending until all vegetables have been pureed.  Add pine nuts and continue blending and adding olive oil until pine nuts are pureed and the pesto is a good consistancy.  Serving size 1-2 Tbsp.  May be used as spread on sandwiches, on pasta, or as a dip.

* CSA ingredients


This pesto has quite a bite to it, so it will probably be best used as a condiment, but not a bad first try at all!  Maybe I can find a way to use it with the chicken that is thawing in my refrigerator right now!