Gentleman Doll Recipes: Garlic Scape Basil Pesto and Roast Pattypan Pizza with Pesto and Sauteed Greens
Had an insane marathon cooking session yesterday when I found the harvest of patty pan squash piling up and wanted to use several at once, along with a sizable amount of garlic scapes (I bought a giant bag of the latter a month ago at The Garlic Farm before I realized the farm CSA share would include more garlic scapes for three weeks running... our fridge nearly fillied up with them). Also: had a bell pepper and half an onion, a half-empty bag of bean sprouts, three different kinds of garden greens and some formerly fresh thyme that a family member forgot purchasing, let get dried out and “donated”.
You can see the intimidating array of veg I was faced with...
My first solution was to make Garlic Scape Pesto, which would last through several recipes and use of a good chunk of scapes at once... the CSA share also included basil, a traditional pesto ingredient, so I tossed that in as well. I've never had brilliant success making scape pesto and it was a challenge this time, possibly because I subbed in cashews for the traditional, very expensive pine nuts, and used vegan parmesan... But I stuck with it, pureeing til I had the consistency desired. Even if you use strictly traditional ingredients apart from the scapes (which I've done past years) the scapes take longer to puree than plain basil or greens, and need a bit more oil or liquid. But it’s worth the added effort. Next time I might try soaking the cashews too.
I made a few little appetizers with pesto to see how it would taste in different contexts... these are some stuffed squash blossoms and stuffed jalapeños topped with red cabbage coleslaw (a delicious little addition to the farm CSA last week... I may have to try making my own when my cabbage start piling up)
Then I figured pizza would be the easiest way to combine the odd assortment of remaining veggies. (I’ll be making pasta with the remaining squash and pesto later in the week). I sliced and roasted the four oldest pattypans in the oven (I basted them with either olive or sesame oil, then experimented with other flavors, including thyme, balsamic vinegar, lemon pepper, sriracha, oregano, vegan blue cheese dressing, lemongrass and dijon mustard). At the same time I sautéed the rest of the veggies in olive oil.
The roast pattypan slices proved so tasty it was hard to stop myself and assorted family who stopped in from just eating them out of the oven, but I saved enough to (just) make a layer on the pizza, between layers of pesto and the greens mixture. It really worked well for something I came up with on the spot to prevent rotting veggies in my fridge.
It was a bit overwhelming, especially being in a hot kitchen on a hot day... but worth it. ;)
