Arugula and Mushroom Lasagna

Veggie lasagna is such a great way to use just about any vegetable from the garden.  As I've been overrun recently with greens, and with arugula in particular, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

And if you and your family can't get through a whole pan of lasagna, it freezes very well no matter the ingredients.

This version includes a layer of ricotta mixed with some spinach and garlic, a layer of balsamic roasted mushrooms and a lot of fresh arugula all brought together with a creamy bechamel sauce.

For extra flavour, serve with some arugula-walnut-garlic scape pesto (or traditional basil pesto) and a drizzle of truffle oil (optional but highly recommended).

Detailed instructions follow.

Arugula and Garlic Scape Pesto (and Potato Salad #2)

This pesto is wonderful on potatoes or pasta.  I was supposed to wait for my own homegrown potatoes to add to my potato salad plans for the summer but this pesto was too perfect to wait. 

For the potato salad, I parboiled baby potatoes then "smashed" them with the back of a wooden spoon to split them open a bit.  Roast them with some olive oil on high heat until crisp.  Toss the potatoes with spoons full of pesto until well coated.  Delicious while still hot, but I also love it at room temperature.

And the pesto is also delicious in its more common use: tossed with pasta (shown here with both sundried and fresh tomatoes).

This makes a lot ... it freezes very well, either in baggies for individual servings or larger amounts in jars.  I made one batch earlier this week.  Then I harvested a boatload of arugula and made a triple batch today.

Ingredients:
1 cup walnuts, toasted
1 cup chopped garlic scapes

8 cups packed arugula

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

optional 1/2 cup parmesan

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Process toasted walnuts and garlic scapes until smooth, adding a bit of olive oil as needed.  Add arugula in handfuls and continue to process until smooth while adding more olive oil and lemon juice. 

Season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper.

I don't use the cheese in the recipe when I am going to freeze it.   I add the cheese when I cook with it afterwards (definitely with the pasta).  And I don't use cheese at all when adding to potatoes.

Spaghetti with Arugula

During the week while I'm working away from home, I tend to have my biggest meal in the evening mostly for the sake of convenience.  But on weekends, when I get to cook at home and am likely to be working in the garden or yard all day, I like a big lunch.

This makes one large serving of pasta or probably is enough for two light servings.

I had mostly arugula from my harvest this morning, but there was a bit of kale that I threw in as well.  Spinach is pretty much interchangeable with the arugula or kale here.

I wish I had fresh garlic - but it will be another month or so for the garlic to be ready for harvest.  I do still have some garlic left from last year.  It is starting to sprout but it is good to use.  I just need to remove the sprout from the middle as it can be bitter and only use the rest of the clove.

Ingredients:
1 serving spaghetti
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
5 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
red pepper flakes
3-4 cups arugula and kale (2.5 ounces) *
3-4 cocktail tomatoes, quartered





* Note: I weighed the greens because I know everyone "packs" a cupful of greens differently.  These are not loosely packed but not crammed in either.  As shown in the picture above, I remove some of the stalk on the longer pieces mainly for aesthetics. They are, of course, totally edible and tender but the long pieces can look funny once the rest of the greens have wilted down.


Method:
 
The sauce will come together while the pasta cooks, so prep all of the ingredients first.  Once the salted water is boiling, add spaghetti. As soon as pasta is in the boiling water, start preparing sauce.



Add olive oil to a heated saute pan.  Add garlic and red pepper flakes (1 tsp or as you prefer).  Season with a pinch of salt.  Heat on medium-low for about 7 minutes until softened.  If the heat is too high, the garlic might burn. 








Turn the heat up to medium and add the greens to the pan.  Toss gently to coat with the garlic and oil.  The greens will begin to wilt.   Remove from heat until pasta is ready.

When pasta is ready, return saute pan to heat then add tomatoes and cooked pasta.  Toss to coat.  Adjust salt as needed.




Serve with grated parmesan or aged cheddar.

Harvest Monday: June 9, 2014 - Radish and Arugula Salad (with Chives and Poached Egg)

I was put in my place last Harvest Monday after complaining about having nothing but chives - it turns out some fellow gardeners would have been happy with what I had!

In addition to chives this week, I have harvested radish and arugula.

This is the first year in many that I bothered to grow radishes; I interplanted them with sugar peas.  But I want the focus to be on the peas now so I cleaned out the radishes even though many weren't quite ready.  Ah well, I still ended up with a useable 5 ounces.

And the greens are finally happening.  They sure don't weigh much but the 1.75 ounces of arugula I harvested is plenty for this lunch size salad.
















Especially with the addition of a poached egg!  Just add your favourite vinaigrette to some arugula and sliced radishes, along with shaved radicchio, grilled baguette slices and a poached egg for a light lunch.