Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Garlic Scape Pesto

A few weeks ago, I received a free coupon from FoodBuzz and Buitoni to try out Buitoni Riserva refrigerated pasta.  Since I haven't had much of a chance to cook dinner this past week with lots of after-work and blogger activities, I was really looking forward to using my coupon last night to cook a hearty pasta dinner.

On my way home, I stopped by DeLuca's Market and discovered that they only had one kind of the Buitoni Riserva pasta - Wild Mushroom Agnolotti.  But since I love mushrooms, I was pretty happy with this selection.

When I got home, I immediately put a pot of water to boil with a few pinches of salt.  While the water was boiling, I got to work on the rest of the pasta dish.  Last week, I received a delivery of garlic scapes from my farmers market delivery service.  After reading this recipe on Local in Season, I knew that I wanted to make a garlic scape pesto.

First, I washed a half bunch of garlic scapes.

I chopped them up (discarding any of the yellow parts) and placed them into the food processor.

I pulsed the garlic scapes so that they were broken down and then I added about a half cup of raw shelled walnuts.

I pulsed some more and then added some Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and olive oil to taste.  It is hard to quantify how much I put in because I would pulse, taste and add some more of any of the four ingredients based on flavor and consistency.

The garlic scape pesto had a beautiful color and as a garlic lover, I was definitely enthralled by the sharp garlic flavor.

When the water had started boiling, I gently placed the half-moon shaped pasta into the pot with a small drizzle of olive oil to keep the pasta from sticking.  This pasta cooks very quickly and was done after just five minutes.  While the pasta was cooking, I prepared my final ingredient for the pasta and chopped up some leftover sundried tomatoes.

I topped the agnolotti with the garlic scape pesto, sundried tomatoes, Parmesan cheese and a drizzle of olive oil.

The pasta was divine.  The agnolotti was filled with a rich blend of Portobello and Crimini mushrooms.  Although this pasta would be great with a cream-based or brown butter sage sauce in the winter, as a summer dish, I loved how perfectly it went with the garlic scape pesto.  The sharpness of the pesto and the sundried tomatoes cut into the richness of the pasta in the most wonderful way.

What summer pasta dishes have you been enjoying lately?