Garlic Scape & Spinach Pesto

The curly tops of the garlic plant are at all the Farmers Markets in the early summer. The tops are cut off so all the plants' energy can be put into the bulb. The tighter the curve the more tender the scape. Almost anything you can do with garlic you can do with a scape. Avoid straight ones, too tough.

I used spinach and scape to make an easy pesto.

• 1/2 lb spinach tough stems removed
• 5 garlic scapes roughly chopped, use it all
• 6-10 nice basil leaves or dry basil to taste
• 1 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup toasted nuts your choice
• 2 oz of good hard parm or asiago grated fine
• pinch of salt

In a food processor add the scapes and chop fine

Add spinach, basil and olive oil and puree scraping down the sides as needed

Add nuts and pulse until combined

Add cheese and pulse until combined

Taste add salt if needed

Bonus Free Advice

Chicken with pesto is a go to dish for lots of people. It's also pretty bad sometimes. Try this next time. Thin out the pesto with a little EVOO so it's more sauce like and pourable. Accent the pesto with some acidity. I used a reduction of Balsamic and red wine with a touch of maple syrup for sweetener. Reduce it by 2/3 and let cool. This stuff won't go bad so go ahead and make some to just have around.

Super Bonus Free Advice

Cook your chicken breast, let it rest then do some fancy knife work so it looks like mine. When sliced right you can cut it with a fork. I know I just did it. Here's how. Using a long skinny slicing knife slice the chicken on a 45 degree angle starting at the fat end of the breast. Make the first cut into the fat end not on top of it. Make 5 more evenly spaced slices and you will have 7 nice slices that will layout flat. Odd numbers look better on a round plate.  You can even have it curve around the plate like I did.

That's it, no more Super Secret Tips today. Thanks for reading all the way to the bottom.

Peace, G