Recipe: Garlic Scape Pesto

Moving away from the Union Square Green Market has been hard on us, but the “lemonade” is an excuse to join one of the many fabulous CSAs in South Berkshire County. (A little known fact: one of the first CSAs in America was established right here in Egremont, MA; Indian Line Farm was started by Robyn Van En, Jan Vander Tuin and a group of local community members in 1985.) Though it was a tough decision, we decided to go with a work-share at Laura Meister’s Farm Girl Farm, a farm we have admired from afar for years. Obviously we are thrilled to get our hands a little dirty and come home with fresh veg all the way through November. But we’re also excited to see where our weekly bag of goodies takes us and the recipes on this blog.

Sure enough, our first few shares of the year brought curly bundles of bright green garlic scape inspiration. While the first few batches were perfect grilled as a side dish or sauteed into pastas, we thought we would make a pesto out of the late-season scapes and slather it on a grilled chicken. Another selling point: other than the delectable Parmigiano from Rubiner's and the dry Rose Silka insisted on picking up, everything we needed for the meal was in our not-so-well-stocked pantry. A quick grill and a speedy spin of the food processor handed us a gorgeous summer dinner, plus extra pesto to freeze for later.

Garlic Scape Pesto

+ 1 bunch of garlic scapes
+ 1/3 cup pine nuts
+ 1/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
+ Kosher salt and black pepper
+ 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus 1 tbs

1. Chop the scapes in to one inch lengths and sautee in a pan with a little olive oil.
2. When the scapes turn a vibrant dark green, and release their aroma, remove from the pan.
3. Puree the garlic scapes, pine nuts, Parmesan, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a food processor until very finely chopped - pulsing works best. Then, with the motor running, slowly pour the oil through the opening. Season the pesto with salt and pepper to taste. Spread on everything!

The pesto keeps in the fridge for 1 week or frozen for a month.

To make our grilled chicken rub the pesto on a butterflied bird then grill as you normally would, “basting” with extra pesto as it cooks. The pesto would also be fabulous on pasta, or as the base of a salad dressing, dipping sauce or aioli.

Recipe: Mushroom Cream Sauce with Bacon

When you make something amazingly pure and delicious like homemade gnocchi you want to complement your efforts with a simple sauce. Gnocchi takes especially well to light cream sauces (and who doesn't like a light cream sauce?) so we jumped to an easy bacon and cream sauce that has become a trusty standby. This magic sauce takes almost no time or elbow grease to make, costs basically nothing and - if you're like us - you always have bacon, cream, and stock in the fridge, so it requires no shopping!   

Most of the time we add peas, but because no one sells frozen vegetables at the Union Square Market (why IS this?!) we decided to go with seasonal mushrooms. The Mitake and Shitake shrooms were looking and smelling particularly good this week, so we picked up about a half pound of each, figuring their earthy aroma would suit the potato-y clouds perfectly. And boy did it! We hope you enjoy as much as we do! 

Mushroom Cream Sauce with Bacon

+ 1 lb of mushrooms, cut in to meaty slices

+ 1 lb of bacon ends, cut into lardon, or thickly sliced bacon.

+ ¼ cup of cream

+ ½ cup stock

+ 1 sprig of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

1. In a heavy skillet, on high heat, begin to brown the bacon. When the bacon starts to crisp up, add the mushrooms, and turn down to medium-high.

2. When the mushrooms start to brown and release their aroma (about 5 minutes) turn the heat further down to medium and add rosemary. After a few minutes pour in the stock and stir to release the browning bits off the pan. Let reduce for a few minutes.

3. Pour in the cream. Simmer for another couple minutes then mix in a pound of gnocchi or pasta.

Recipe: Grazin' Angus Burger with Chip’s Ranch Dressing

When we asked Chip from the Union Square Greenmarket what his favorite thing to make with his own Grazin’ Angus beef was, he listed a few things before admitting, "Ultimately, it's a burger." He loves a Grazin’ Angus burger so much that, as we mentioned before, he and his father-in-law are opening up a burger joint in Hudson, NY.

He likes to serve the burger "black and blue" (a heavy sear on the outside and rare in the middle) with caramelized onions and good local blue cheese or with homemade buttermilk-ranch dressing. We were pumped about the prospect of the homemade ranch because we love anything made with buttermilk or mayonnaise. So we got a pound of ground meat from Chip and some Coach’s Cultured Goat Milk and headed home to try it.

Black and Blue Burger

+ 1 lb of ground meat - grass-fed if possible!

+ salt and pepper

+ 3 tsp of butter

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Take the ground beef and fluff it up a little without over working it. Lightly form it into 3 ⅓ pound patties, each about an inch thick.

3. Take a teaspoon of butter and gently press it into the middle of each patty, covering it back up with a little meat. Now salt! Don’t be thrifty with the salt if you want a nice crust. Pepper both sides.

4. Turn your pan (cast iron if possible) on high and wait until it's very hot. Sear patties on each side for a minute, until you have a nice deep brown crust. 

6. Stick the whole pan in the oven for 5-7 minutes. If you're not sure if the burgers are done, poke them. If they spring back but don’t give too much resistance they are done.

Buttermilk Ranch Dressing

+ 1 cup of homemade mayonnaise

+ 4 cloves of garlic, minced

+ ½ cup of buttermilk - we used cultured goat milk because we like it's tang and grassy flavor but regular buttermilk works just as well.

1. Mix the garlic into the mayo. Add the buttermilk to taste, one tablespoon at a time.

Chip was right, this was an amazing combination. The intense beefiness of the grass-fed burger combined the the tang of the buttermilk and sharpness of the garlic was out of this world. It was especially fantastic on a (somewhat flattened) homemade burger roll with a slice of late summer tomato. Thank you, Chip!