Garlic scape pesto is the talk of the town this time of year so I thought it was about time to remind you about this swirly, magical offshoot of garlic and the pesto I use all year long from it.
If you need to be sold on making garlic scape pesto, here's my pitch:
There's no cooking.
No heating.
No nothing.
You put some stuff in a blender, and then serve or freeze.
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 cook and eat when I found the fungus growing on my corn. It's apparently a delicacy but I just found it creepy.
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 2 or 3 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.
First a refresher of what a garlic scape is. A lot of people missed out on the food zeitgeist of 2013 on account of that being the same year as the Candy Crush addiction epidemic.
Table of Contents
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, 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.
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 eat this pesto all year long. Whenever I need it, I just grab a few cubes from the freezer.
My 2 favourite pesto recipes:
Pesto Pizza
Garden Veg & Pesto Pasta
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.
I assume you chop up the end that would become seeds, too?
Hi Sandra D. You technically can and a lot of people do but that portion is always tough so I omit it unless it's a very very young scape. ~ karen!
I'm a little late reading this, and on top of that, have a dumb question.
1/2 lemon juice and zest
Are you just throwing in a half of a lemon or just keeping the good parts?
Hi Melinda! I'm not sure I understand the question, so I'll just tell you what I mean and hope that helps. You want to zest the peel off of 1/2 lemon, then juice that same half, and add the juice and the peel to the mixture. ~ karen!
Oh my gosh, this is so good! Thanks Karen!
I'm glad you like it! ~ karen!
An outstanding recipe indeed! I used pepitas in lieu of pine nuts. My next batches will be experimenting with different types of nuts. Perfect ratio on the lemon. Thanks for sharing!
Excellent! I'm glad you tried it. how was it with pepitas? Good apparently, lol. I know people use walnuts as well. ~ karen!
How about grilling or stir frying the scapes first before making the pesto? Anyone tried that?
Hi Karen, Have you ever blanched your garlic scapes before making pesto? Thanks!
Hi Rochelle. I haven't, no. ~ karen!
Thank you!
Thanks for the great idea! I'm going to make your pesto and use it on pizza. Can't wait! You're the best internet chum a gal could have!
I made my first batch yesterday! I like adding pesto into my veggies when making roasted sheet pan dinners with gnocchi. So good!!
Always in the freezer at my house. So delicious. I have a ton of leek scapes this year that I'm gonna try it with. They were delicious grilled this week, so I figure it won't suck.
You'll have to let me know what the leek scapes are like! ~ karen
This is a great recipe and I made it once when I was growing garlic. My question is, towards the bottom where you cut the scape off it gets pretty woody. I don't want to waste any so how do you know what parts to use?
Hi Emie! The older the scapes are the woodier they get, working from the bottom up. So if you're using garlic scapes that have *just* finished doing their first curly loop they should still be tender all the way down. So maybe your scapes are a bit too old. Otherwise, don't worry about waste - cut off anything that's woody and ditch it. :) ~ karen!
Thanks Karen. I try and cut them off when they're young but a few stragglers are usually left behind,
I LOVE this recipe. I grow garlic and belong to a CSA. Lots of garlic scapes in the house.
Made this last year, substituting nutritional yeast flakes for parmesan cos I don't dairy. It was so good that this year I have had to grow double the quantity of garlic just for the scapes!!
Honestly, the garlic scape pesto is really my favourite part of growing garlic. ~ karen!
I'm a little late reading this, and on top of that, have a dumb question.
1/2 lemon juice and zest
Are you just throwing in a half of a lemon or just keeping the good parts?
Hi,
Scapes only grow from hardneck garlic. Softneck garlic will not grow them. Check your varieties everyone so you won't be disappointed.
That recipe sounds great!
Have to try lemon in my upcoming batch. I mix an herb & scape butter and store it in a log in the freezer. Slice a disk or two and melt it in or on anything you fancy! Have enjoyed them cut to the length of a mason jar and then pickled. Garlic reigns supreme.
It's really good. It just adds a little something. ~ karen!
Thanks for the Insider's tip Karen. Spotted them today at The Dundas Farmer's market. Now, time to go prune the scapes in my garden and blitz some scapes into pesto.
I'm actually making my pesto today if I can get to Picones for some basil! ~ karen