Dinner Tonight: Garlic Scapes

Wandering through Union Square Greenmarket this past weekend it seemed as if every stall was selling the hyper-seasonal ingredient of the moment: garlic scapes (screw you ramps, you're so three weeks ago). Having never tried them, I picked up a pound-- intent on making garlic scape pesto.

Photo courtesy of gongar

Once I figured out the best way to prep the scapes, the pesto was really easy (as pesto tends to be). The further down the stem, the more fibrous the scapes get, so break them off while they're still soft then chop them up. I also toasted some pine nuts and added them to the food processor. After tasting a piece of the scape, I knew I would need to add something else to mellow it out a bit. Luckily I had some flat-leaf parsley in the fridge. With some harissa, lemon zest and juice (and s&p) the pesto was bracing and slightly spicy.

For my next two meals I ate the pesto with linguine and bacon then spread on a toasted baguette and topped with roast beef. Both were awesome.

However, tonight I wanted to make something slightly more refined.

Another trip to the greenmarket today revealed avocado squash and green squash. I wanted something lighter (after heavy 4th of July eating), so I picked up a piece of trout from Whole Foods and headed back to my apartment.

I made a sort of ratatouille with squash, by sauteeing pucks of avocado and green squash with salt and pepper, then layering it in a bowl with some of the garlic scape pesto and throwing it in the fridge while caramelizing some onions and cooking the trout. Everything came together on top of some reheated cous cous and topped with a wedge of the ratatouille. Check out my attempt at classy plating:

Honestly, it didn't even need the fish. The combination of the squash and caramelized onions atop the harissa cous cous hit every flavor note when mixed with the vibrant pesto.