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The allium family (including garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, and chives) is well known to even the most basic chef. After all, what pantry is complete without onions and garlic? But these tasty plants are also nutrition powerhouses, packed with antioxidants that have shown potential in the fight against cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
For a culinary celebration of the season, look no further than this Spring Galette with Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto. It was sent to CCSA as part of a series of emails from our resident chef, Dr. Linda Doody.
“Cooking requires confident guesswork and improvisation—experimentation and substitution, dealing with failure and uncertainty in a creative way.”
– Paul Theroux
Spring Galette with Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto
Category
CCSA Blog
Healthy Eating
San Francisco Chronicle, Amisha Gurbani (May 13, 2022)
Notes
Galette (from the Norman word gale, meaning "flat cake") refers to a free-form, single-crust tart with either a savory or sweet filling. It is meant to be rustic, requiring no special pie dish or tart pan.
The Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto recipe makes more than needed. It will stay fresh for 2–3 weeks in the refrigerator. Leftovers can be tossed into pasta or used as a spread for sandwiches.
Ingredients
- Dough
- 2¼ cups + 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon carom seeds (carom, also known as ajwain or bishops weed, is a seed-like fruit often used in Indian cooking. Like coriander, cumin, and fennel, carom belongs to the Apiaceae [or Umbelliferae] family of plants. The shrub's leaves are feather-like, and the plant's fruits are pale khaki-colored, ridged in texture, and oval-shaped. They are pungent, smelling like thyme but tasting more like oregano)
- 1½ sticks unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 cup ice water + 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto
- 5 cups cilantro, roughly chopped with stems (pre-washed)
- 1 stalk green garlic (green garlic typically starts appearing at the farmers' market in March and is available for just a few months of the year. It is a young garlic plant with bulbs that are not fully matured, but still very flavorful and slightly pungent)
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 1¾ teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup raw pistachios
- ½ cup finely grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup + 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Galette
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 leek cut into thin rounds
- 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
- Kosher salt, to taste
- Coarsely ground black pepper, to taste
- 3 to 4 jarred piquillo peppers, thinly sliced (piquillo peppers are a small, sweet Spanish pepper with a distinctive, triangular shape and a sharp point at the bottom. They are roasted over embers, which gives them a distinct sweet, spicy flavor, then peeled and de-seeded before marinating with salt, pepper, and olive oil and packing into jars)
- 1 cup Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto
- 4 ounces mascarpone, at room temperature
- 2 cups grated fontina cheese
- 2 Tbsp heavy cream + 1 teaspoon sugar
- Garnishes
- 20 pistachios, coarsely chopped
- 2 Tbsp thinly sliced green garlic
Instructions
- Dough
- Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and carom seeds, if using, and whisk until blended. Add the butter; using a pastry blender, mix until the butter is pea-sized. Add 8 tablespoons of the ice water and toss until the dough is uniformly moist and holds together when pinched. If it seems too dry, add 2 more tablespoons of ice water. [Note: To use a food processor, process flour, salt, pepper, and carom seeds in the bowl until mixed. Add butter pieces and process until pea sized. Add water slowly until dough begins to mass. Place dough on a floured surface and work until smooth, but do not overwork.] Gather the dough with your hands, shape into a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour, or until ready to roll out.
- Cilantro, Green Garlic, and Pistachio Pesto
- In a food processor, add the cilantro, green garlic, lemon zest, salt, pepper, pistachios, and Parmesan cheese, and pulse until well combined. With the processor running, slowly add the 1 cup of olive oil, then continue blending for 1 minute. Scrape unused pesto into glass jars and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil on the top to preserve.
- Galette
- Melt the butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the leeks and green peas, along with the salt and pepper, and sauté to combine, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes or until the leeks have softened a bit. Stir in the piquillo peppers, if using. Set aside while rolling out the dough. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Dust a flat surface with flour and roll out the dough into a 14- to 15-inch circle. Transfer the rolled dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Using an offset spatula, spread out 8 ounces of the pesto from the center of the circle, leaving at least a 2-inch border. Sprinkle the grated fontina over the pesto, then add dollops of mascarpone evenly spaced over the fontina. Spread the vegetable mixture evenly over the cheese and pat it flat ever so slightly with the offset spatula to hold it in place. Gently fold the border over the filling, overlapping and pleating the dough as you go. [Note: Folding the wider outer edge of dough onto a smaller part of the circle allows the dough to pleat naturally. Going in one direction, fold the dough at regularly spaced intervals. The rim should be about two inches wide, which gives a nice ratio of crust to open face filling.]
- Gently brush the heavy cream with sugar over the galette dough with a pastry brush. Place the galette on the lower rack of the oven and bake for about 40-45 minutes, but no longer than an hour. The crust should be golden brown. Remove and let cool slightly for 15 minutes. Garnish with the pistachios and green garlic. Slice and serve warm, passing some of the remaining pesto.
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