Garlic Scape Pesto
Garlic scapes are the green curly shoots that grow out of garlic when it's young, and apparently only hardneck garlic produces garlic scapes. The scapes are sometimes called green garlic or garlic spears, although many sources call the young, underdeveloped garlic bulbs green garlic. I first tried some of my garlic scapes in an omelet. Then I made a batch of garlic scape pesto, which one online source said was the most popular use of the scapes. I guess I would have to give the garlic scapes a mixed review as far as flavor. Although I did enjoy the garlicy/oniony flavor, I also found it slightly astringent, and the taste lingered in my mouth longer than I wanted it to! This is an ingredient I would recommend using sparingly if you're using it as a flavoring in something like a frittata or omelet. I liked the flavor of the pesto quite a bit, but in the recipe I'm giving you I reduced the amount of garlic scapes and increased the amount of cheese quite a bit from the recipe I tried. Making pesto is an art, not a science anyway, so if you happen to stumble on some garlic scapes, give it a try and decide for yourself.
1/2 cup garlic scapes, finely chopped
4 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
3 cups grated parmesan cheese
salt to taste
(recipe adapted from a combination of online sources)
- Put garlic scapes and lemon juice in bowl of food processor with steel blade, and process until scapes are very finely chopped.
- With food processor running, add oil through the feed tube and process 2-3 minutes.
- Remove lid, add half of parmesan cheese and process 2 minutes, then add the rest of cheese and salt and process 2-3 minutes more.
- Serve tossed with hot pasta.
In the photo, I ate my pesto with Dreamfield's Linguini. This would also be good on fish, as a topping for bread, or as a seasoning for cooked rice.