Orzo, Asparagus and Garlic Scapes in Garlic Scape Pesto
May 29, 2012 - Written by Diana
What to eat when it’s hot outside ? A salad with pesto as the dressing is better than mayo or heavy dressings and parts of it can be made ahead of time to be combined sometime later before you eat. Both my husband and my son enjoyed this for dinner, my husband loved it so much he finished off whatever was leftover that same evening.
I received garlic scapes in my market bag and used it in the pesto and the salad itself, chopping it into pieces about one to two inches in length. I cut the asparagus and the leeks to the same size as the garlic scapes (though they weren’t used in the pesto). I prepared this again with more asparagus for our Memorial Day family gathering, but I have broccolini that would work well and so would fresh peas.
Garlic scapes are substituted for garlic in this dish, I used it in the pesto and the salad. They are the seed heads that shoot up among the garlic, cutting the scape off is supposed to lead to a bigger head …
Garlicky Smashed New Potatoes with Spinach and Lamb Mint Sausage
March 27, 2011 - Written by Diana
Lamb Mint Sausage is my new favorite sausage. We bought it at Blues Creek Farm Meats when we were at the Lamb Cutting Class and discovered that we love it . The mint is sort of subtle, and when you throw it into an Alfredo sauce like my daughter did last week, you might not taste the mint at all. However, if you cook it on it’s own and serve it without any sauce, you can get the nice mint flavor that’s subtle, but it’s there. As a result, I don’t like to mix this sausage with other foods and serve it on the side. Tonight, to go with the sausage, I made one of my husband’s favorite sides – potatoes, though he likes potatoes almost any way you can think of to prepare it. I did a rough smash, mixed it with some garlic and shallots that were sauteed in oil, and some fresh spinach that wilted down. I threw in a couple of tablespoons of butter and some garlic olive oil …
