They say when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. So when the garden gives us arugula, I guess it means you should make…..pesto!
bowl of freshly picked arugula
It’s a good thing arugula is a favorite here at HA. The two window box planters that overwintered in the greenhouse were both starting to bolt, so I harvested all the leaves. There was about 10 oz of it total, which is (so far) the most I’ve harvested at one time. I’ve still got some that overwintered in the cold frame, and it hasn’t started bolting yet. And I planted another window box that is almost ready to start harvesting. So we are really up to our ears in arugula, so to speak.
Sundried Tomato Pesto
And that is not a bad thing. In addition to mixing it in with other greens for salads, we enjoy putting the leaves on pizzas after they come out of the oven. But when we have a lot of it, like we do now, I really like to make Sundried Tomato Pesto with it. The pesto is great on pizzas or in pasta dishes. I used some of it last night for a dinner dish with cut up grilled chicken, whole wheat penne pasta, and some oven roasted tomatoes from 2010. I added a little of the arugula leaves as well.
pasta with pesto, chicken and arugula
Arugula isn’t the only thing going on here though. We continue to get nice harvests of lettuce and spinach. I got a big bowlful of baby cutting lettuce from another of my container plantings. And I got about a pound of spinach, some of which I sauteed for dinner one night and some of which went into a wilted spinach salad.
baby lettuce (cut and come again)
On another note, I took advantage of warm weather this weekend and got my bed ready for planting potatoes. The soil isn’t quite warm enough to plant though, and my seed potatoes haven’t arrived yet anyway. But at least I got the spot worked up and ready to go.
ready for planting potatoes
I also got some scallion seedlings planted in my onion spot. My storage onions should be ready to plant in another week or so. These onions will all be unprotected, so I am hoping our growing deer herd doesn’t develop a taste for onions!
That pasta and pesto dish looks absolutely yummy! The greens look delicious too. I am getting spurts of greens now but not quite at the steady state of growth yet. If the rain would take a break and we got some sun I think everything would be ready to really get going – but at the moment the rain is now showing any sign of leaving anytime soon. Thank goodness for container grown items in the greenhouse!
What a windfall. Your beautiful greens make me jealous. We make an arugula pesto which just uses arugula instead of the basil. It’s very peppery and good. We’re still waiting for the snow to melt.
Your baby lettuce and arugala look so crisp and your pesto look delicious!
My wife and I love arugula. Tried planting some this weekend but we still have a layer of permafrost in most of the beds. I did get my peas planted though, so here’s to partial victories. The weather should be warm this week so maybe by next weekend I’ll be able to work the soil enough to get the lettuces in.
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This looks like the Happy Acres buffet!!!
Good for you being so ‘ready’ for your taters! Mine won’t arrive until April 11 — not by my choice but the seedsmen. Hopefully I will have enough to save for next year and can plant by my schedule, not theirs!!
I sure hope we all have a better garden adventure this year! By the way, the deer in these parts don’t care for onions but they love Rhubarb leaves. (Who said those were toxic???)
The pasta dish looks great…I have some Arugula growing in the cold frames. I think that’s a dish I’m going to have The Italian make this week.
Arugula in pesto? I hadn’t thought of that, what a fabulous idea! As for prepping potato beds, you’re ahead of me! I had planned to get our first crop planted by St. Patrick’s day…but first I’d like it to stop raining! 😉
Well I’m glad you enjoyed it. Arugula is one of the few veggies (along with beets) that I just can’t stand. I grew it in my garden one year and found how much I dislike it. I pulled those plants up rather quickly. I know I’m strange that way. A dislike for beets seems pretty normal, but not for arugula.
I can nearly taste that dish. Looks like you’ve definatley come into the pesto time. Freeze it in icecube trays for later!
Wow, that is a lot of arugula.
I do love that pesto… time to plant LOTS of arugula in the hoophouse –once I can get the door open.
That bare ground makes me long for summer. I needed to revisit the summertime posts from my blog to remind me that I love Maine. Just not in early March.