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Hello all!  Darby O'Shea has moved on to prettier pastures!  Find us (as always) by typing www.darbyoshea.com or by going to www.darbyoshea.wordpress.com.  There you'll find new RSS links and an email subscription option! 

Late to the party: Garlic Scape Pesto

Hey there.  It's Ms. Late to the Party telling you to do That Thing Everyone Else Was Already Doing Anyway.

But seriously, on the off chance that one of my fair readers hasn't heard of garlic scapes yet (despite their recent media saturation), go forth and find some!  They're just going out of season now (in New England) but if you can still find some at the markets, they're quite surprising and delicious!

What to do with them: apparently you can use them anytime you would normally use a green onion, or you can saute them like asparagus, throw them in a stir fry (this would be delish), or just eat them in a salad.  The most popular choice, though: make pesto.

Here's what I did:


I roughly chopped the scapes and threw them into the food processor.  Then I threw in a hunk of pecorino romano and a few leaves of basil (not many).  Then I processed until that was all looking sort of chunky and happy.  Then I slowly poured in olive oil until I liked the consistency.  (I used a half pound of scapes, probably a quarter pound of cheese, and a half cup or so of olive oil.   But I didn't measure and neither should you.)  This pesto is delicious over pasta and I think it would be be a nice topping for some roasted chicken (or fish, maybe?) and it's tasty spread on bread.

I also had some leftover homemade ricotta, so, after I filled an ice cube tray with the fresh pesto, I left a half cup or so in the food processor bowl and dumped in about a half cup of ricotta and buzzed it up.  This made a delicious, creamy, immensely spreadable cheesy garlicky deliciousness.  Slathered on fresh focaccia (with grape tomato halves nestled in) it was exceptionally delicious.

Also, if you didn't notice, I mentioned freezing this stuff.  It's a good idea and you should try it.  This stuff will keep for a while if frozen and if you squish it into icecube trays, you have the perfect dose for a bowl of pasta.

New camera!

You may know that I'm teaching this summer.  To reward myself for being so productive I've been planning for months to buy myself my very first Digital SLR.  I love shooting film and this won't be the end of that habit, but it'll be nice to add some slightly better photos to the blog. 

And one can't underestimate the power of instant gratification, which one gets less of with film.  (In fact, the class I'm teaching is kind of the instant gratification version of beginning German, so it's an appropriate self-bribe.)

These are just a few samples from my first twenty-four hours with the new camera and I must say I'm pleased.  Obviously I don't know her yet and she doesn't know me yet, but we'll get there.   These represent the three most important food groups of my typical photo-taking: random texture and plant and food shots, dogs in motion, and silly bar and/or cafe photos.

Oh, and your food tip of the day: throw some golden raspberries on top of some yogurt and drizzle with local honey.  Then thank me.