Here’s a lovely lunch that came straight from the farmers market this weekend. I managed to sneak in a shopping trip right before it started to pour on Sunday – where did our early summer go?

We have such a short window for garlic scapes – I knew I had to snag some before they were gone. I came home with the scapes, some asparagus, purple potatoes, apricots and spinach, but I think I knew the whole time that the asparagus would be the first thing to play with.

Dave and I made garlic scape pesto before, and I knew it would be perfect with the asparagus, lemon and especially the burrata (what doesn’t go with burrata?).

The result was this lovely warm salad – filling, but not too much food. Perfect for a spring lunch where you don’t have to reheat your lunch. And perfect for a spring day where you can spend most of the time watching soccer, napping to the sound of the rain on the aluminum roof or diving into library books. Yeah, it was a pretty good weekend.

Here’s what you need:
1/2 lb. asparagus
Garlic scape pesto
Burrata
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Coarse salt and freshly grated pepper
handful of walnut pieces

For the pesto:
3-5 garlic scapes, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup loose cilantro leaves
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
Heavy pinch of salt
2-3 Tbsp. best quality olive oil
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Steam the asparagus by placing a steam basket in a saucepan with 1 inch of water in the bottom. Add the asparagus to the steam basket, cover, and heat over medium high heat for 5-10 minutes after the water starts to simmer, or until the asparagus can be pierced with a fork.

While the asparagus is steaming, Place all pesto ingredients into a food processor and pulse until it forms a thick paste. You may need to add more olive oil depending on your preference.

Spread a thick swipe of pesto onto one end of your serving dish and place the asparagus spears on top. Squeeze the lemon juice over top, then sprinkle with walnuts and grated Parmesan. Finally, top with burrata. Serve warm.