Fennel frond pesto + what to do with those pesky stalks

I love fennel, especially the bright, beautiful bulbs available at my farmer's market right now. But I do feel a small pang of guilt when I buy whole fennel, because the bulb? It's so small. And -- at least in my case -- the stalks are so big. I mean:

So you see what I'm dealing with here.

A quick search for what to do with my piles of fennel stalks turned up some truly dainty advice: "sprinkle the fronds on salad," and "add a pinch of fronds to simple syrup, then mix with gin for a nice cocktail." That all sounds lovely, but if I were to "sprinkle" these fronds on my salad, I'd end up with something akin to fennel tabouli. (Which, come to think of it, doesn't sound half bad. Next time.)

I thought momentarily about trying a few different preparations and seeing what panned out, but quickly abandoned that idea for fear of excessive fussiness. I wanted to give my pile of fronds destination and purpose, and I wanted to do so post haste. So I went long - six cups long -- on what, in retrospect, was the most obvious choice: pesto.

I started with Melissa Clark's basic formula: fronds, toasted almonds, garlic, olive oil. You could stop there and have something worthy of fridge space. But I ended up adding a bit of orange zest and some Turkish chile to round things out, and I'd recommend both additions.

When the pesto comes out dense, as it did in the photo above, you can just add more oil. If you're going to use it relatively quickly, you can even add a bit of water to help thin it out.

Can we talk for a moment about all the ways to use this pesto? A few are obvious, but others are less so:

• mixed with ricotta, spread on baguette slices
• spread on a tart or a sheet of puff pastry, topped with tomatoes or, hey, slices of roasted fennel
• a spoonful mixed into a simple vegetable soup or dolloped into a bowl of minestrone
• added to salted water as a lovely cooking broth for any vegetable, especially artichokes
• as a layer in a grilled cheese sandwich (with blue, gruyere, parmesan, or pecorino)
• as a condiment on a cheese plate (see recommended pairings above), alongside orange marmalade
• Tossed with spaghetti and any number of other things (tomatoes; anchovies; raisins/currants; toasted bread crumbs)

We had it on tarts for Friday night dinner, layered under shaved zucchini, crushed tomato, and parmesan cheese.  For Father's Day dinner, I folded a bit of the pesto into tomato sauce for campanile (those little bell-shaped pasta), which I topped with a carefree helping of olive oil-toasted bread crumbs. I've still got a  tub of it left in the fridge; whatever I can't get through before the move, I'll freeze in small containers for use later this summer.

As for those pesky fennel stalks, they are far more stubborn than the bulb, slower to yield. That said, a long, lazy bake in a cast iron pan did the trick, and now I'm addicted. I sprinkled them with sea salt and pepper, drizzled a tablespoon or so of olive oil and about half as much honey, and baked them in a cast iron pan at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. The result was a pile of soft, golden stalks, sweet and yielding and delicious as I'd ever tasted. They made a great cook's snack, but next time, I'll try layering them on a tartlet, on top of a smear of that frond pesto, finished with some honey or orange marmalade and maybe some soft cheese.

With that, I'm off to toast a slice of the last challah this AdMo home of ours will see. *sob*

Fennel Frond Pesto
Adapted from Melissa Clark Makes about 2 cups

Clark calls for an 8:1 ratio of fennel:nuts, but I prefer more nuts in my pesto. Because I used whole roasted salted almonds, I didn't need to add any salt. If you're using unsalted nuts, add salt to taste - probably no more than 1 teaspoon, but I'm guessing here.

3 cups fennel fronds, roughly chopped
1 cup toasted salted almonds (if toasting yourself or using unsalted, you'll salt the pesto to taste after blending) 
1 garlic clove
1-2 teaspoons fragrant medium-spicy chile, to taste
1 teaspoon orange zest
3/4 cup olive oil

Combine all ingredients except oil in a food processor. With the motor running, drizzle in olive oil 1/4 cup at a time, until pesto reaches the desired consistency. If adding salt, add by the 1/2 teaspoon to taste.

Store in the fridge in an airtight container topped with a thin layer of olive oil. Keeps at least a week, probably two.

Garlic Scape Pesto and Three Ways to Use It

If ever there were a habit of mine that were problematic enough to warrant an intervention, it would be this: I have a jar problem.

At first, it was just tomato sauce. At the height of the season (which, get excited friends, is so near it's basically here), I spend two long afternoons with a pot of tomato mush on the stove, bubbling and simmering until it breaks down and thickens into sauce. Then I pack it into jars and tuck it away until fall. These days, I use a big pot to process my jars for shelf storage, but back in the day, I just tossed them into the back of the fridge.

Then it was jam. The strawberries, the sour cherries -- how could I resist? I always buy too many; add a little sugar, and I've made January breakfast taste like summer. And while I was already bothering, I put up some brine and started pickling cucumbers, asparagus, beets and cauliflower.

At this point I should note that our fridge is smaller than regulation size. It's small. It's not equipped to serve as a pantry for my experiments. Things have calmed down a bit since I started properly canning food, but still -- the extra egg yolks from meringue, the leftover chicken broth from last week's dinner, the five blanched asparagus waiting for tomorrow's lunch -- it's all in there. These days, I'm trying to be better about using the stuff up.

Pesto is almost always in (at least) one of the jars in our fridge. Just last week, I made one batch with the first basil of the season, and another -- the topic of today's post --  using garlic scapes.

The pesto recipe I'm sharing is the product of two wonderful recipes from Food52 and a kind hattip from my friend Josh (and I think this makes three Josh mentions in the course of 1 week. He's becoming my sensei!) Josh mentioned an outrageously good duck carbonara pizza that he'd made with a few modifications. No surprise the recipe came from my friend Cathy, she of Mrs. Wheelbarrow fame on Food52 and beyond. Josh was especially excited about the pesto that went on the pizza, which Cathy made with green garlic but I think Josh made with ramps instead. I loved the idea and decided to follow in his footsteps, except I found beautiful garlic scapes at the market, so I decided to use those instead.

(What are garlic scapes? They're the tops of the garlic plant. Good ones are taut, vivid green, and smell grassy and fresh, not nearly as pungent as garlic bulbs.)

That's when my absentmindedness kicked in. I remembered Josh saying he made ramp pesto, so I searched for a ramp pesto recipe on Food52 and found a beautiful one that won the ramps contest a while back. I followed the instructions there, subbing in pistachios for the walnuts (which, incidentally, Cathy's recipe calls for), and wound up with a fantastic little spread that looks pretty similar to the recipe Cathy wrote and Josh used.

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Lesson? Pesto is flexible. Please don't feel restricted to garlic scapes! You can swap in ramps, green garlic, basil, or any other green and have a different but equally delicious mixture, to be used in all the same places.

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What places, you ask? Here are five good ones. If you've got other favorite ways to use pesto, share'em in the comments. Let's get this thread going, folks. When you're ready to cook, the pesto recipe is below.

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1. Pizza

If you're feeling adventurous, make Cathy's beautiful duck carbonara pizza. It looks out of this world.

I've now made similar pizzas twice: once, I spread a thick layer of pesto on the dough and sprinkled chopped asparagus, chive blossoms, fresh mozzarella, and a bit of parmesan on top. I put an egg on top, but it overcooked in my smokin' hot oven. Follow Cathy's directions and you won't have that problem. So, so delicious.

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The second time, I went for the meat, again at Josh's suggestion. We had some lamb bacon in the freezer, which I fried up. I used the rendered fat to cook the asparagus, which I again put on the pizza, and this time, I left the cheese off and went for just an egg instead. Topped the whole thing with a squeeze of lemon, and it was dynamite.

2.  In Marinades

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Summer is time for grilling. For sides to accompany your burgers and grilled fish, you really can't do better than pesto-marinated vegetables. Right now, asparagus are the logical choice. When they're done for the year, try brushing tomatoes with pesto that's mixed with a bit of water and a squeeze of lemon, then grilling them, using the method in this Saveur piece. When the weather gets cool again, coat green beans with pesto for one of my favorite side dishes of all time.

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3. In a Frittata

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Frittata: world's easiest last-minute dinner. Kenzi did a great step-by-step post on how to make frittata on Food52. Follow that and you'll be golden. You can add the pesto either when you're beating the eggs, to get a more uniform taste of pesto throughout, or you can do as I prefer, and dot spoonfuls of pesto into the frittata after you've poured in the egg.

While we're talking about frittatas, here's my favorite frittata of all time. I can't think of a more perfect place to add garlic scape pesto. And here's a recipe for pesto frittata bites. You really can't go wrong.

Friends, how do you use pesto? Garlic scape or otherwise? Share your thoughts in the comments.

Garlic Scape Pestoinspired by Cathy's recipe and SAENYC's recipe on Food52 Makes a scant pint

1 bunch garlic scapes, chopped (my bunch of 5 scapes made about 2 cups) 1/2 cup pistachios 2 tablespoons water 1/3 cup olive oil plus more if necessary 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese salt and pepper to taste

Combine scapes and pistachios, cheese, and water in a blending or mixing apparatus; I've used a hand blender for this recipe and it works great, but of course the food processor also does the job, if you have one.

Blend until mixture starts to break down. With the motor running, drizzle in olive oil and continue blending until mixture looks like pesto. If things look too chunky, add a couple extra tablespoons of olive oil.

Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed.

Pack pesto into a jar. If you're hoping to keep it longer than a week, top with a healthy drizzle of olive oil, which will help preserve it for longer.

Use in everything. Except ice cream.

Fresh Salmon Cakes with Ginger and Lime

We've been having some of the most beautiful days in DC these past couple of weeks. The air is crisp but not yet cool, and the sun seems happy to shine all day long. It looks like summer from my office window, but it's starting to feel like fall.

The weather's confused my compass a bit in the kitchen. tomatoes and -- believe it or not -- peaches are still at the market for the taking, but apples cropped up early this year, and now they're everywhere. Most confusing of all, as I passed through the lower part of the Dupont market a few Sundays ago, I saw unlikeliest of early fall produce: fresh ginger.

Ginger typically doesn't come into season until mid-October, but there it was, at the end of September, and it was gorgeous. I'd used up my stash from last fall months ago and craved more ever since. Was I going to hold back? No, no I wasn't.

The first thing I do with market ginger is make ginger ice cream. It's been that way every year. Fortunately, I bought enough to have extra after the ice cream was frozen and tucked away. So I flipped to a recipe I'd tabbed back when I breezed my way through The New York Times Essential Cookbook, for fresh salmon and lime cakes.

Rid the image of canned salmon and/or disgusting amounts of mayonnaise from your mind. Shudder; sigh. These are no ordinary salmon cakes. They contain fresh, diced salmon; very little binder; and --surprise! -- wasabi, ginger, and kaffir lime leaves. Dipping sauce: lime juice, soy sauce, brown sugar. No mayo whatsoever.

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These aren't burgers; they're cakes. Don't sandwich them inside a bun (unless it's one of those Asian steamed buns, which actually might be great with a shmear of hoisin and sriracha...whoa, what an idea!) But really, these don't belong in a kaiser roll. They belong on a plate, with a fork and knife -- the way the French might eat burgers, come to think of it.

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Dicing the salmon will be time-intensive. If you have a meat grinder, lucky you. If you're in a rush, you can cut the salmon into large pieces, put them into a food processor, and pulse a few times very quickly until salmon is coarsely chopped. After that, the work is minimal. You can have dinner on the table in 15 minutes flat. Now that fall's arrived -- with school underway, jobs busy as ever, and all of those fall Jewish holidays here -- there's not much else I can ask for.

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Fresh Salmon Cakes with Ginger and LimeFrom The New York Times Essential Cookbook Recipe says it serves 4-6, but I'd say it's more like 2-3; I doubled recipe and served 4 with not too many leftover

*Note: kaffir lime leaves aren't the easiest to find. If we're being honest, I had to try 3 stores before finally getting some. Your best bet is an Asian grocer. That said, you definitely can make these with lime zest. Fret not.

One 1-pound skinless salmon fillet 1 large egg white, lightly beaten 3 tablespoons rice flour 2 kaffir lime leaves, chopped, or zest of one lime 1 tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger 1 teaspoon wasabi paste 3 tablespoons chopped chervil or flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from about 2 limes) 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Oil for frying (something neutral, like corn, canola, or vegetable)

Run two fingers along the top of the salmon to check for any pin bones. They run the length of the flesh, right along the middle. To pull them out, either use tweezers or a small piece of paper towel between your fingers (which mitigates the slipperiness of the fish). Pull in the direcfaces of the bone; they should slide out.

Dice the salmon into 1/4-inch dice. In a medium bowl, combine salmon, egg white, rice flour, lime leaves, ginger, wasabi paste, and chervil or parsley. Stir until everything is evenly mixed.

In a small bowl, combine lime juice, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Set aside.

Set a piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper on a baking sheet. Scoop 2-tablespoon portions of the salmon mixture into your palms, roll into a ball, flatten into a cake, and set on the baking sheet. Continue until all salmon has been used.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Put a baking sheet into the oven.

Heat 1/2 an inch of oil in a nonstick or castiron pan. When oil shimmers, add cakes, leaving at least 1 inch between them. Cook cakes for about 45 seconds on each side; do not overcook. When cakes have finished cooking, transfer them to the oven to stay warm while you cook the rest of the cakes.

Serve immediately, with lime dipping sauce on the side.

(If you'd like to make these in advance, don't preheat the oven; just transfer the cooked cakes to a plate, refrigerate, and warm through in a 200-degree oven before serving.)

How to Use (Up) Zucchini

Friends, the zucchini glut is nearly over. Those plants have practically exhausted themselves these past few months. Before you know it, we'll be talking apple pie. But we've still got a week or two more of zucchini overflow, and I thought I'd share a couple delicious ways to put zucchini excess to good use.

These are recipes I've been making all summer, and you should certainly take the opportunity to make them while zucchini plants are still producing. Lest you think we're only talking about stir fry or gratin, I've got you covered for brunch and snacktime, too.

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Zucchini Boats

Enter the world's easiest dinner. You can have it on the table in under half an hour, and coupled with a side salad and maybe a slice of baguette, it's the perfect summer meal. We're talking about zucchini halves, hollowed out and filled with a mixture of chopped zucchini innards, ricotta and feta cheese, lemon, and herbs, then broiled till bubbling and brown. While I've got a recipe for you here, this is the sort of thing you should feel free - nay, compelled - to improvise. If you only have ricotta, skip the feta. If you have mozzarella, use it in place of the parmesan; just as good. And while I use mint and basil, any other herb would work here. (Thyme would be especially nice.)

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2 pounds zucchini or summer squash of any size 1 cup ricotta 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese 1/4 cup mixed chopped herbs (basil, mint, dill, thyme, marjoram, all great) zest and juice of 1/2 a lemon 1 egg, beaten 1/4 teaspoon salt freshly cracked pepper

Preheat the broiler.

Halve the squash, and use a small spoon to slowly scrape away the flesh of each squash half, leaving about 1/2-inch-squash shell intact. Chop removed flesh into bits, and place chopped squash in a medium mixing bowl.

Add to bowl all remaining ingredients except Parmigiano cheese and stir to combine. Spoon mixture into squash shells, transfer to foil-lined broiler-safe baking dish, and broil about 15 minutes, until zucchini are soft hot, and brown on top. Serve warm.

zucchini frittata

Zucchini Frittata

One of my favorite discoveries this summer was the fact that squash blossoms are delicious in other forms than fried. Go figure. My health-conscious friends will likely appreciate this post, since squash blossoms are among summer's treats, and there are ways to cook them that do not involve copious amounts of oil.

The starting point for this recipe came from Food52 founder and all-around awesome lady Amanda Hesser, who created a frittata using squash blossoms and garlic scapes. I added thinly sliced zucchini and halved cherry tomatoes, and finished the whole thing with some lumps of fresh chevre. Amanda's frittata came out perfectly yellow. Aiming to discredit suspicions of food snobbery at my house, I'll admit that I like my frittatas slightly overcooked. There, I said it. Mine come out golden brown, and I'm quite happy that way. Feel free to treat your frittata-ed eggs more gently.

Zucchini Frittataserves 4-6 as one course of several

8 large eggs, lightly beaten Salt and freshly cracked pepper 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 5 garlic scapes, thinly sliced, or 2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped 8 zucchini blossoms, stems trimmed to 1 inch 1/2 a large zucchini, sliced very thinly (on a mandoline, if possible) a handful of cherry tomatoes, rinsed and halved 3 ounces fresh chevre or goat cheese

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Place zucchini in a strainer, sprinkle with salt, and let strain for 20 minutes. The zucchini will start to emit liquid. After 20 minutes, transfer zucchini to a kitchen towel and press to remove excess liquid and salt.

Season the eggs with salt and pepper. Add sliced tomatoes and zucchini to egg mixture. Place a 12-inch non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and butter and when the butter is foamy, add the garlic scapes, spreading them around the pan. Cook for 1 minute. Lay the zucchini blossoms in an even layer in the base of the pan. Cook for about 1 minute, then turn and wilt the other side, another 30 seconds. Slowly pour the egg mixture into the pan. Dot the top of the egg mixture with blobs of chevre. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake until the frittata is just set, 6 to 8 minutes (more if you're crazy like I am). Remove from the oven. Lay a large plate on top of the pan, and invert the frittata onto it. Serve warm or at room temperature, cut into wedges.

zucchini bread

Zucchini Bread

Ok, I don't know how to break this news any other way...I have made 6 loaves of zucchini bread in the past three weeks. I'll happily blame the apparent fixation on a slew of recent housewarming and condolence gifts I gave. But really, I can't resist the way my kitchen smells when this zucchini bread is in the oven.

The recipe is from Deb, and having made it three times, I can tell you, there is no way to improve this recipe. It is absolutely perfect. This is the time to make this bread: zucchini is everywhere, but the weather is cool enough to turn on the oven. Don't waste a moment. You know what? Make a double batch. Freeze a few loaves. Thank me later.

Zucchini Breadmakes 2 loaves

3 eggs 1 cup olive or vegetable oil 1 3/4 cups sugar 2 cups grated zucchini 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 3 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons cinnamon 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional - I'm not a nuts-in-bread fan so I skip) 1 cup dried cranberries, raisins or chocolate chips or a combination thereof (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour two 8×4 inch loaf pans.

In a large bowl, beat eggs. Mix in oil and sugar, then zucchini and vanilla.

Combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder and salt, as well as nuts (if using), chocolate chips and/or dried fruit, if using.

Stir dry mixture into the egg mixture. Divide batter into prepared pans.

Bake loaves for 60 minutes, plus or minus ten, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.

So there we have it. A few great recipes for the most prolific summer vegetable there is.

Now...a question. What are your favorite zucchini recipes?