I’m making a bunch of home made wine vinegar’s right now. I’ve got one overly sweet Italian Rose, one California Rose I forgot about, one Chilean red blend I just didn’t like, and one Chateau Neuf-Du-Pape I got because it’s hard to say in English. I like to try new wines so the ones I don’t like get turned into vinegar. It’s not that hard from I’m reading, you just mix it with some raw vinegar and let them sit for a while. I feel like that’s one of the more interesting long term projects I have going on at the moment though they won’t be done for at least another month or three.

In the mean time: below you will see a picture of my cat and a recipe that is pretty inconvenient to make unless you are growing garlic and so have garlic scapes seasonally on hand. If you don’t have garlic scapes you could just make a garlicky pesto and it would probably be great. I believe in you and trust your creativity.

Ingredients

• 2 Salmon or Trout Filets, Skin-On
• Pasta Noodles (Whichever your preference, I used Bucatini for this one)
• ~200 g Garlic Scapes
• 10 g Fresh Basil
• 80 g of Freshly Grated Parmesan
• ~ 1 Cup of Olive Oil (or a mix of olive oil and neutral oil in case you’re not made out of money)
• 60 g of Walnuts
• Canola Oil (or any oil with a high smoke point)
• A Pinch of Paprika
• Salt and Pepper
• 1 Lemon

Recipe

• Place the garlic scapes, the basil, the olive oil, the walnuts, a big pinch of salt, and the parmesan unto a food processor and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning to your preference.
• Season the salmon filets with salt and a pinch of paprika, and set aside.
• Fill a large pot with water and salt it generously. Set the pot over high heat.
• While you wait for the water to boil, place a stainless steel or cast iron pan over medium-high heat with a few tablespoons of canola oil.
• Once the oil is shimmering, add the filets, skin side down. Cook undisturbed for a few minutes. It will be ready to flip when you can see the skin on the bottom is deeply browned and it comes off easily from the pan.
• When the salmon is ready, flip and cook for another few minutes. Once the fish has reached an internal temp of 130-135 F, take out of the pan and set aside while you cook the noodles. Season salmon with a couple cranks of fresh pepper.
• Cook the noodles to package instruction. Once finished, drain and mix pasta with the garlic scape pesto till nicely coated. Feel free to add some pasta water to make it more saucy. Adjust for seasoning to your taste, mine needed a little extra salt and parmesan.
• Place a nice scoop, or twirled portion, of pasta on each individual plate, and place the salmon next to it. Add a lemon quarter to squeeze on the salmon.
• Enjoy!