Pasta

Pasta is delicious. Pasta is versatile. Pasta is always present in the pantry.

But when it comes to making something new and exciting, pasta almost feels like cheating. It's too easy. No matter what you do to pasta, people usually like it.

But when presented with a bunch of garlic scapes, I made pesto. For pasta.

That's right I cheated.

And it was I good thing I did, because it was a huge hit. The pesto was lighter than traditional basil pesto, and had an almost grassy flavor. I stirred in some grape tomatoes after coating the farfalle with sauce and the results were pretty good.

The next day I stirred some scape pesto into my scrambled eggs and the results were even better.

I guess sometimes cheating isn't really cheating.

Here is the recipe, adapted from Kim O'Donnel's Mighty Appetite blog at The Washington Post:

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup toasted slivered almonds
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Method:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.