Pesto is the quintessential Spring and Summer dish: fresh herbs at the peek of their seasons blended expertly with cheese, fresh garlic, nuts and oil.  Anytime I eat pesto, I can almost taste the warm Summer days in every bite.  So it’s only natural for me to want to freeze it and hold on to the memories of Spring and Summer in the dead of winter.

Preserving pesto is surprisingly easy…so much so you can miss a few steps and it will still come out wonderfully.  The first step is to (naturally) make the pesto.  I decided to make my favorite Arugula Walnut pesto using this recipe.  But I omitted the heavy cream and replaced the 1/2 cup olive oil with 1/4 cup walnut oil (trust me, the walnut oil makes an AMAZING pesto).

Once the pesto is made, spoon it into ice cube trays.  Cover the trays with plastic wrap and put them in the freezer until the pesto is completely frozen (about 3-5 hours).  When the pesto is frozen, remove the pesto cubes from the trays and place them in a heavy duty freezer bag.  Remove as much air as you can from the bag and zip it up.  Now when you want pesto in the Winter, pop out one or two cubes, let them thaw and use!

I’ll be honest, I missed a few steps in this process.  I forgot to spray the ice cube trays with Pam (as someone I know suggested doing in order to get the pesto out easier once frozen).  Turns out, you don’t really need to do this.  I used a butter knife and was able to pop the pesto cubes out easy.  I also forgot to cover the trays with plastic wrap and the cubes didn’t suffer at all.  I would, however, recommend you follow the step of wrapping the trays in plastic wrap.  It’s possible I have a freakish freezer that isn’t prone to freezer burn.  I wouldn’t want your lovely pesto to suffer because my freezer is a freak of appliance nature.

I was an odd child, but this shouldn’t really come as a surprise.  I was the child in pre-school that the teachers worried about because I was “special”.  And by special, I mean I was the child singing the “VD is for everyone” song during nap time.  Granted, I had no idea when I was five what VD was, but it had a catchy tune and they played the dang public service announcement all the time in Germany.  So of course I thought it was appropriate to sing about sexually transmitted diseases while the other kids were trying to sleep.  But the oddest thing about me (or at least according to my fellow pre-schoolers) was my love of peas.  I seriously LOVED peas…so much so, I’d hide cupfuls of the little green gems in my room whenever my mother made them for dinner.  What?  Like you never did that…

Considering my ardent love of peas, I was super excited to see shelled English peas at the Bloomingdale Farmers Market last weekend.  The thing is, I’ve never had fresh peas before…last Spring I completely missed the pea season and DC is the first city I’ve lived in with such a vibrant farmers market scene.  So this Spring I was dead set on getting my hands on fresh English peas to see if they were as amazing as the boards on Don Rockwell touted.  Rumors had been swirling that fresh peas were showing up around the DC farmers markets, but I’d yet to actually see them myself.  Someone said they were being sold at Penn Quarter on Thursday evenings, but they were gone before I could get there.  I went to the Foggy Bottom Farmers Market after hearing one of their produce stands had them, but there were only snow peas for sale (and I really don’t like snow peas).  I was starting to think these peas were more elusive than the Holy Grail.  When I found out Garner’s Produce would have a limited supply at Bloomingdale, I made sure to be there before the market bell rang so I could stake out my very own pint of peas.  When I finally had them in my hands, I felt almost like I’d won the Super Bowl…although I refrained from spiking the container.  There was just one problem…I hadn’t a clue what to do with them.  That is until I popped one in my mouth uncooked…and it was heavenly!  Sweet and tender, with a slight crunch to them, they made the perfect snack.  I could have easily kept popping the little beauties into my mouth with abandon, but I figured I should do something a bit more productive with them.

Since asparagus is still hanging around the farmers markets, I decided to combine them with the peas for a Springtime stir fry.  But then I looked in the freezer and remembered I had some lovely fettuccine from Cavanna Pasta dying to be used.  I decided to combine the asparagus and peas with a creamy arugula pesto to make a light and oh so Springtime-y pesto pasta.  I managed to make the dish without finishing off all the peas by myself…but only barely.

Spring Vegetable Pesto Pasta

1 batch of Creamy Arugula Walnut Pesto

1 bunch of fresh asparagus, diced

2 cups of fresh peas, rinsed and drained

2 tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

8 ounces fresh fettuccine (can use dried fettuccine if you can’t find fresh)

Dice the asparagus into bite sized pieces and toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Heat up the remaining olive oil in a skillet over medium high heat and add the asparagus.  Saute until the asparagus is tender but still firm (about five to seven minutes).  Add the peas during the last two minutes of cooking time and then remove the vegetables from the heat.

While the vegetables are cooking, make the creamy arugula walnut pesto (follow the link for the recipe to this lovely pesto…yes it’s my recipe, but it’s still lovely).  Bring a pot of water to a boil and then salt it before tossing in the fresh pasta.   Cook for two to three minutes and then drain – reserve a 1/2 cup of the pasta water though.  Combine the pasta, the pesto and the vegetables in a big serving bowl and toss to evenly coat all of it.  Serve and Enjoy!

This recipe highlights the great produce available at local farmers markets right now.  Get out and find a farmers market near you!

Is it just me or are the titles of my recipes getting longer and longer? I guess I could have just called these buffalo burgers and left it at that; but how could I not mention the amazing pesto that really makes these burgers jump off the plate? Well if you can think of a shorter name that encompasses all these flavors, let me know. Because I can’t…and I’m the one writing this post, not you.

I have gone most of my adult life completely unaware of garlic scapes and that’s just sad. Garlic scapes have a rich, garlic taste (hello…garlic addict right here!) but isn’t as sharp as using raw garlic itself. Because of their unique flavor, garlic scapes are great for pesto. They combine the green of the usual herbs used in pestos along with the garlic. So think of it as Mother Nature’s version of a two for one sale.

When I found out garlic scapes were going to be in my weekly CSA share, I knew I was going to make pesto with it. I also had a thought in the back of my head to use the pesto in a chicken burger since the 4th of July is close at hand. But as I was walking through the Dupont Circle farmer’s market, I came upon Cibola Farms, a purveyor of buffalo meat and various pork products. I have never had buffalo meat but knew it to be a heart healthy alternative to cow beef. I spoke briefly with the guy running the stand about the taste and cooking techniques of buffalo meat and I was convinced. I had to try some and I definitely had to try it using my pesto idea. I picked up some ground buffalo meat and promised to let him know how my burgers turned out.

For the Pesto:

1 bunch garlic scapes

1/2 cup walnuts or pine nuts (walnuts are better, but pine nuts will do in a pinch)

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

6 ounces sun dried tomatoes, completely drained of the oil and wiped dry

Salt and pepper to taste

For the burgers:

2 lbs ground buffalo meat

1 batch sun dried tomato and garlic scape pesto

Cut off the ends of the garlic scapes and place them in a food processor. Add the cheese, nuts and tomatoes (make sure they are completely dry by wiping them with a paper towel…trust me, this is important). Blitz the ingredients in a food processor until they are well combined. Slowly pour in half of the olive oil and check to see if the pesto is a thick but blended consistency. If it is, you do not need to add anymore olive oil. If it’s not, continue to slowly add the oil until it has reached the desired texture. This texture is vital because it will also serve as the binder for the buffalo meat.

Line a baking sheet with foil and set it aside for the burgers. Place the ground buffalo meat in a bowl and add the pesto. Using either your hands or a wooden spoon, completely incorporate the pesto and the meat. Form patties with the mixture either free form or you can be anal like me and use a round mold. Place the formed patties on the baking sheet. Depending on the size of the patties, this recipe can make up to a dozen burgers. Once you have formed all of the patties, place them in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

At this point, you can either grill the burgers, broil them or use a grill pan on the stove top. If you grill them (either on the stove top or the grill), make sure to grill them slowly. Buffalo meat must be cooked at a slower pace than cow beef. If you plan on broiling them, place the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven so the patties will cook slowly. I opted to broil them, cooking them for about 3 minutes on each side.

I topped the burgers with a smoked mozzarella and ate a great mesculin mix salad along with it. And as an aside, save the sun dried tomatoes, burger buns, nuts and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, everything used to make this meal came from my local farmers. See how tasty eating local can truly be?

Finally, these burgers will be entered into the latest Marx Foods recipe contest to build the best burger. The winner receives 10 pounds of the burgers of your choice (Marx Foods sells over ten varieties, including Kobe) just in time for the Summer grilling season. Let the throwdown begin!

Blame Michelle over at Thursday Night Smackdown for this recipe. I was perusing through the many food blogs I have bookmarked at work (during lunch…yes, that’s it, during lunch) and stumbled upon her most recent edition of Cheap Ass Mondays…which included fresh pasta made by hand (yes ladies and gentleman, she didn’t even use a pasta roller or maker). The thought of making fresh pasta was stuck in my head the rest of the day, so as soon as I got home, I pulled out the Babbo Cookbook and immediately fell upon the recipe for black pepper pasta dough. Hello luvah!

I am a gadget whore…this should not be news to anyone who reads my blog regularly. But I must admit, after making pasta without the use of a pasta maker or roller, even I am considering retiring my pasta making gadgets. It was so much easier to just roll the dough out with my heavy rolling pin than to run it through a machine repeatedly. And adding fresh ground pepper to the pasta dough? Sheer genius! You can find the pasta dough recipe here, so I now turn my attention to the fabulous pesto!

3 handfuls fresh arugula

1 handful chopped walnuts

3/4 cup parmesan cheese, shredded

1/2 cup olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup heavy cream, warmed but not scalded

Black pepper pasta, already cut and ready to cook

Place a large pot of water to boil on high on the stove for the pasta. Salt the boiling water and add the tagliatelle, cooking for about four minutes. While the pasta cooks, start on the pesto. In a food processor, place the arugula, parmesan, garlic and walnuts and pulse until combined. With the processor still running, slowly pour in the olive oil. In a saucepan, warm the heavy cream on medium heat until almost at a boil. Remove from heat and let stand for about a minute. Turn the processor back on and slowly add the heavy cream until you get a green, creamy emulsion. Scrape the pesto onto the cooked pasta and toss until evenly coated.

Since I had so much fun participating in last week’s Presto Pasta Nights, I decided to submit this entry for the next round-up! Head over to Chew on That this Friday for a slew of pasta recipes from all over the food blogosphere!