Garden Greens and Garlic Scape Pasta with Shrimp

A discovery of slugs in the garden, hunger, and low-blood sugar grumpiness inspired this quick Friday night dish. I know it doesn’t sound like a good thing would come out of that, but trust me, it did. Thankfully this dish completely turned around the evening. We had arrived at the cabin after a typical traffic-filled Friday commute to find that, despite lining the garden with copper (which is supposed to keep slugs out) AND sprinkling turkey grit (another supposed slug repellant) we found a few slugs starting to get to our precious greens. We rid the garden of them with low cups of beer (the silly lushes can’t resist it), but I wanted to use the baby greens they didn’t get to. I threw in sorrel, which has a great lemony taste, baby swiss chard, baby beet greens, kale, and the tender garlic scapes from all our garlic that we planted EVERYWHERE in the fall. The key is finishing it with lemon zest. The acidity makes it pop!

Garden Greens and Garlic Scape Pasta with Shrimp
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 cups garlic scapes cut into 3 inch pieces
6 cups mixed chopped greens, like kale and swiss chard
1 pound shrimp, deveined
8 oz whole wheat angel hair pasta
1 cup diced fresh tomatoes
1/4 cup shaved parmesan, divided
Zest of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large skillet, melt one tablespoon of the butter and saute the shrimp until pink. Remove the shrimp.
2. Boil the salted water for the pasta.
3. Add the additional tablespoon of butter, melt and then saute the garlic scapes until tender.
4. Boil the pasta as directed and drain, reserving 1/2 cup of cooking water.
5. Add the greens to the skillet and saute until they relax and then add the shrimp, the tomatoes, the wine and half the cheese. Add salt as needed.
6. Add the pasta to the dish and toss well to coat
7. Plate each dish with a serving of pasta and top with the cheese, the zest, and black pepper.