Garlic scape pesto is the talk of the town and now you can actually buy garlic scapes at markets. So I thought it was about time to remind you about this swirly, magical offshoot of garlic.
The year was 2013. I had written a post about how to make garlic scape pesto, the best pesto you'll ever eat. The kind of pesto that will ruin you for regular pesto for the rest of your life. At that time garlic scapes were still a bit of an anomaly. The kind of thing weirdos and food hustlers were trying to get you to eat.
Like corn smut. Which I was gullible enough to eat last summer when I found the fungus growing on my corn.
Back then, in 2013, Garlic scapes were what the underground cool kids were cooking.
Now garlic scapes have made their way to farmer's markets and people actually know what they are even if they still aren't quite sure what to do with them.
I've tried scapes many ways including sautéed, grilled and as a fashion accessory. But really the only thing you should do with them is make garlic scape pesto. I make 3 or 4 batches of this, freeze it in ice cube trays and then throw them all into a big freezer bag and pull them out as I need them.
To make garlic scape pesto you only need a few ingredients, and really only a few scapes.
10 scapes will get you a batch of pesto that will serve 8 people.
Before I give you the recipe here's a refresher of what a garlic scape is (a lot of people missed out on the entire year of 2013 on account of the Candy Crush addiction epidemic.)
What is a garlic scape?
- A garlic scape is the round stem that grows out of the centre of the garlic plant in late June.
- That stem eventually turns into the flower head of the garlic and will produce seeds.
- Scapes need to be cut off of growing garlic to allow the garlic plant to push its energy towards growing the garlic bulb, not the garlic flower.
- They're a delicacy that only comes once a year for a very short period of time. Like fiddleheads or ramps. Or a really funny Saturday Night Live skit.
This is a "brighter" version of pesto from the addition of lemon juice. You can add more or less lemon juice as you like but the amount in the recipe below is the amount I use in all my batches.
You just whizz everything together in a blender or food processor and you're done.
There's no cooking.
No heating.
No nothing.
You blend, and then serve or freeze.
Garlic Scape Pesto
Ingredients
- 1 cup rough chopped garlic scapes apx. 10 scapes
- ½ cup basil
- ½ cup toasted pine nuts
- ½ lemon juice & zest
- 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Instructions
- Toast pine nuts in a dry pan over medium/low heat for a few minutes. Toss them and turn them until they just start to brown.
- Pulse first 7 ingredients in food processor or blender (everything but the oil) until everything is chopped up.
- Slowly drizzle in oil with processor or blender running.
- Serve over linguine. (you can heat your pesto in a pan first if you like)
Notes
Nutrition
I do 4 things with this pesto: put it on linguine, give it away, make pesto pizza, and make this recipe for pasta with garden vegetables, goat cheese and ... pesto.
There isn't much time left so if you want to make this head to a farmer's market immediately or find someone who's growing garlic and beg for a few scapes. Don't give them the recipe though because they'll never give you any scapes then. They'll keep them all for themselves. That's an insider tip right there.
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I’ve made this with cilantro instead of basil and toasted pecans instead of pine nuts. And yes, it does ruin you for any other kind of pesto.
I made this and enjoyed the recipe, then left my life to care for my elderly parent. Now that I'm attempting to revisit my life, this was a top of the list recipe for this time of year. One thing I wish to caution people about - there's no need for all of the oil. I followed the recipe and spent a few hours soaking up the oil. To each their own. I've personally found that the amount of oil isn't necessary, and have excellent results with half of that amount. When I witnessed the oil accumulating on the top of the recipe, I immediately sought to soak it up. Took me an hour or 2.
IMO pesto doesn't need to have an enormous amount of oil. Excellent recipe though, in spite of the oil content, I recommend. thank you
This is so tasty, but I’ve made a lot. Can I “can” this sauce? If so, any preferred method?
Hi Kristin! I'm so glad you like it. I actually pour it into ice cube trays and freeze cubes of it. Then when frozen I stick them in a baggie so I can just grab a few cubes when I need them. I'll add that tip to the post! ~ karen
I just made garlic scapes pesto using a (gasp!) different recipe, but the ingredients were nearly identical. However, the garlic flavor is overpowering. Almost to the point of it being inedible. I'm assuming my scapes we're too old. You think??
Hi Heidi. I'm not sure but I wouldn't think so. Usually if the scapes are too old they end up being woody as opposed to a lot stronger. The only thing I can think of is you chopped up the garlic scapes quite small. This would mean you could pack more into a cup and therefore maybe used more scapes than you should have? I'm genuinely just guessing here though. :/ ~ karen!
Hmm. Maybe you're right. I'm going to try to "dilute" it with some spinach so I don't have to give it to my chickens.
This is a great recipe, made it last year and now getting ready to make it again! The scapes are ready!!! Thanks Karen for sharing.
I made this last year and subbed almonds for the pine nuts because that's all I had and I just had to make it right there and then! This year I'll try the walnuts. I did as Karen said and froze in ice cube trays. Used it on Pizza and with pasta. Delicious!
Hi, first year growing garlic [actually planted it last fall] but my garlic scapes were only about 6 inches long. The time was right? So I cut The short scapes, maybe not grown long enough, and used them. Very good!! All gone! Now I’m thing it might be time to pull my garlic plants!!! Thanks again Karen.
Good luck with your garlic harvest! ~ karen
A question. Do I use the white top of the scape or just the green part??
Oop, sorry for the late reply. If the tops are very young and tender and haven't begun to form flowers inside you can use those, but I normally just use the green part. ~ karen!
Ummm....wow! So I just made the recipe with the 150 garlic scapes from my parents' place! I now have 6+ cups of pesto and it's a darn good thing it's yummy! That really hits different! I'll try some on my pizza this weekend, too.
It's REALLY good on pizza. ~ karen!