Garlic Greens Pesto |
Spring
2 cups of garlic greens, chopped
1/2 cup cheese (parmesan,traditionally)
1/2 cup nuts (walnuts or pine nuts or even almonds!)
1/2 cup olive oil
salt
Place in food processor and blend until the pesto reaches the desired consistency. Depending on your equipment, you might choose to make half-sized batches.
Simple and delicious. _Not_ low fat, but healthy nonetheless. Walnuts are available locally every autumn; black walnuts litter my yard every year, in fact. When grapeseed oil is more available--and more affordable--from local vineyards, I hope to use it in place of the olive oil. And finally....I've been thinking about reducing the oil content and replacing the parmesan cheese with local goat cheese. Anyone who tries, please let me know how it goes!
The basis of this recipe came from a handout at the Ithaca Farmers' Market, but it indicates that you should only use the bottom, tightly rolled portion of the garlic greens. We've found that as long as the greens are fresh, even the grassier bits blend well into the pesto. This incorporates more _greens_, always a goal in our house, as well as making the garlic greens we buy provide about twice as many batches of pesto as the farmers suggested!
Good on crackers or baguettes, but even better spooned over hot pasta. The greens can be very strong, almost astringent, so the brief cooking the pesto gets from the just-boiled pasta mellows the bite a bit. (Alternatively, one could blanch the greens before making the pesto, I guess. Or just cook it briefly on the stove.)
According to the recipe, this pesto keeps well for a month in the freezer. I wouldn't know. It never lasts a month in our house.
Comments
well, the aesthetics are certainly different, but so are the texture and taste. I sometimes put leek tops aside for use in making veggie stock, but you can also slice them very think and blanch them, or simply add them to your stir-fry (or whatever) early so that they have extra cooking time as compared to the white bits.
They are still more noticeably fibrous, of course, but they're edible anyway.
Karen, do you know of a source for local grapeseed oil? "Local" here means all of the Finger Lakes.
This sounds wonderful. I'm also going to experiment with pesto made at least partially with garlic mustard leaves.
This idea of "only use the bottom, tightly rolled portion of" the plant is something that I've heard --and ignored-- about leeks as well.
Does anyone know why these recipes tell you not to use the leafy bit? I've found that it makes slightly greenish Potato Leek Soup, but other than the aesthetics, is there a real argument for tossing the top bit in the compost?
Here's my variation on the pesto theme, courtesy of Cooking Light (I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but really, they're an amazing source for recipes):
5 cups trimmed arugula
1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
1 tablespoon lemon juice (ideas for local substitutions, anyone?)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons extravirgin olive oil
I don't know of a local source of grapeseed oil. I just remember talking about it a year or so ago....and I am living in hope of it appearing.
As for the garlic mustard greens....go for it. But you'll almost certainly want to blanch them first. This late in the season, after they've flowering, the leaves are fairly bitter. We use them occasionally in a pasta sauce, just cooking them down in regular old tomato sauce. Blanching...and using enough salt...should work wonders with them.