Saturday morning Farmers Markets are a thing of beauty. Fresh produce and local products offer the opportunity to try new ingredients in new and fun ways. Cristina Thompson recently had the great idea to use kale & garlic scapes to create a garlicky pesto pasta dish- filled with Boulder Sausage Italian Sausage!
Thanks for sharing Cristina!
Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe:
- 1 or 2 bunches of garlic scapes (to taste! it’s really garlicky)
- 1/4 – 1/2 cup of olive oil, depending on taste!
- 4 – 5 leaves of fresh green kale, stalks removed and torn into smaller pieces
- Handful of fresh basil (about 1/2 cup)
- 1/2 Lemon
- 1/4 cup of fresh Parmigiano Reggiano
- 1/4 cup of fresh toasted pine nuts
- Salt and pepper to taste
First, toss the garlic scapes into a food processor and blend until no large pieces remain. Next, toss in the toasted pine nuts and blend until combined. Then you’ll add about 1/4 cup (or a very large drizzle) of olive oil, and pulse again until combined. Add the Parmigiano Reggiano and pulse until combined. Finally – add the lemon juice, the basil, and the torn kale – and blend until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste, and feel free to add more olive oil if it looks too dry for your taste. Pesto, done!
Garlic Scape, Swiss Chard, and Boulder Sausage Pasta
- 1 Pack of Boulder Italian Sausage (ground sausage, without casing)
- 4 – 5 big leaves of Swiss Chard, stalks removed and torn into pieces
- 10 – 15 cherry tomatoes
- 1/4 Lemon
- Parmigiano Reggiano to taste
- Pasta of choice (I used multicolored pasta from Trader Joes)
- Don’t forget to reserve pasta water!
- 3 – 4 Tablespoons of garlic scape pesto (or any pesto you like)
Start out by cooking the Boulder Sausage in a saucepan on medium heat until cooked through. Make sure to chunk it into small pieces for the pasta while cooking. Add the swiss chard to the cooked sausage – the fat from the sausage is perfect to cook the chard in! Cut your cherry tomatoes in half, and throw them into the chard & sausage mixture. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the tomatoes blister. Turn the heat to medium – low, and squeeze in the lemon juice and grate Parmigiano Reggiano into the mixture. Add the garlic scape pesto, and stir to combine to create a sauce. After the pasta is finished cooking, reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water and add to your sauce mixture and stir. Drain the pasta, and add to the sauce to combine. Make sure to taste and add salt and pepper if needed, and top with Parmigiano Reggiano!