I had some (more) fresh-picked garlic scapes and I needed to do something with them. I had procured some gorgeous, organic chard from Dineberg's Farm, and figured I'd make a chard-scape pesto. This way I could use some with dinner and freeze the rest in little dollops to use in the days ahead. So that's what I did.
I stripped the washed chard leaves from the stems and set them aside. I placed rough-chopped scapes in the food processor, a handful at a time, and processed them fine with a little salt. Then I added the chard leaves, also rough-chopped, a handful at a time, and processed it all together, adding a little salt with each addition and then drizzling in some fresh-squeezed lemon juice, organic extra virgin olive oil. I tasted it, added a little more salt, to taste and that was it.
Oh, sure, you can add roasted pignoli (pine) nuts (or walnuts, or sunflower seeds, or any nut/seed that you like) and a parmesan cheese (I'm fond of pecorino) at this point, but I prefer to add those things later if I feel they belong in whatever I'm serving.
After all, pesto just means paste and has nothing to do with the ingredients. And it's not just for pasta.
In fact, tonight I took some of my spouse's homemade, organic, wholewheat flatbreads, sliced them and and slathered on some of this pesto, topped them with a nice slice local cheddar, and popped them under the broiler 'til the cheese was warm and melty. It was quite tasty.
As for those chard stems, I sautéed them with snow peas, green ones from Dineberg's Farm and golden ones from my own little garden.
That's what I made today.
Peace.
11 comments:
Sounds really good and you've given me an idea. I just picked chard today and have never tried it as pesto, now I will. Great post.
I'll tell ya Gloria, I adore greens, all greens, especially cooked. Yet, when it comes to chard, I prefer chard this way.
Though I'm sure to see more of it as the season continues, so I'll be trying other approaches and hope to share them here. :)
And I'd love to know how you prepared your chard, and if you made pesto ~ how'd you like it?
Ohhhh...my favorite sauce of all - pesto - and the flatbread sounds divine! I live in a small town in the mountains and there are three restaurants that make a decent pesto/pasta - I'm in Heaven up here because of that, lol.
oh my, yum yum!
thank you for sharing the ingredients.
Looks yummy, yummy, YUMMY!
Yep, I'm now drooling!
I harvested my scapes this week too Rose! They look fabulous just sitting in a glass jar but I am going to try my hand at your recipe. It looks so good and atop fresh bread with cheese...yummm.
All this good green looks so yummy and healthy, good for you, enjoy!
Love pesto of all sorts - so versatile
This sounds and looks so good Rose. I will save the recipe for next year when my scapes become available again. It is hard to find recipes for scapes, I think anyway. Stir them, chop them in dips over potatoes. I'm sure the sky is the limit.
That is so healthy! Possibly the lightest pesto i have ever seen! I want to try it!
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