June 6, 2013 - Downingtown Farmers Market Dinner: Turkey & Scape Meatballs with Linguini and Peasant Bread

Tonight's Farmers Market Dinner:

Turkey & Scape Meatballs with Linguini and Peasant Bread with Scape Butter

Today, I decided to be good and use up the ground turkey we had in the fridge rather than buy the fresh  pork chops (next week?). I also wanted to try the marinara and linguini from Vera Pasta. I had no onions at home for the meatballs so I purchased the spring onions to filled that gap.  

But the highlight of the market this week were the scapes.  I've seen scapes, I've eaten scapes, but I've never cooked with them before.  Fantastic flavor and I can think of a bunch of uses - too bad, like the ramps,  they're only here for a few short weeks.

Turkey & Scape Meatballs:

1.Chopped up some herbs from the garden for use in the meatballs and sauce.  I used some parsley, thyme, oregano, rosemary, and sage.

2. Combined an egg, a pound of ground turkey, the herbs, a few diced spring onions, shredded parmesan, diced scapes, and bread crumbs in a bowl using a fork.

3. Formed into 1 inch balls then baked at 400 degrees for about 30-30 minutes.

 

4. While they were baking I defrosted the marinara sauce from the market.

5. Once the meatballs were cooked, I added them to the sauce to stew for a few minutes.

 Peasant Bread with scape butter:

I used the last of the bread dough from the other night.  It's based on the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes recipe.  Flour, water, salt, and yeast - thats it.  If you've never tried it then give it a shot - you'll be amazed how simple it really is.

6. Since it was refrigerated I let it sit out and come to room temp while the meatballs cooked.  Once they were out of the oven I through in the pizza stone and cranked up the oven to 480 degrees.  

 

7. I drizzled some olive oil on top and spread parmesan cheese and dried herbs.

8. Once out of the oven I let it cool down.

9. While cooling, I combined a stick of butter (I wanted leftovers) and a fistfull of diced ramps along with the a spring onion or two, and pepper.

10. After a few minutes on low heat I poured the butter into a small bowl.  I threw the butter into the freezer to solidify.

11. Once the bread had cooled some, I sliced the bread and coated one side with the scape butter.  The slices went back into the oven to give it a little crunch.

12. Nothing too crazy with the plating: it's pasta on a plate with bread.  I topped it with more cheese and fresh basil.