Garlic Scape Pesto is just an added bonus that comes with growing your own garlic.
Every year around Columbus Day, I set out 30 to 40 garlic bulbs with enthused anticipation of a banner July harvest. As you would expect from a website devoted to Mediterranean dishes, we use a lot of garlic. Growing our own just makes sense.
A tomato growing as a companion to our garlic plants.
Here in the Northeast we grow hard neck garlic. Garlic comes in two varieties, hard and soft neck. As the name implies, hard neck or soft neck refers to the texture of the stem. It is commonly agreed that the hard neck varieties do better in colder, northern climates. This is important, since the crop over winters. Hard necks are also more likely to produce a scape than their soft neck cousins.
Just a few of the Garlic Scapes harvested this week.
What exactly is a scape? Scapes are the flowering bud of the garlic plant which begin to form late May. If left alone the plant will put most of its energy into producing the flower and little into the bulb. Harvesting the scape, by simply cutting them off, is believed to produce a larger garlic bulb.
The scapes are full of flavor and should not be discarded to the compost heap. Uses include but not limited to marinades, stir fry ingredient and of course a great pesto. Below is Gracie’s killer garlic scape pesto.
By the way, if you don”t grow your own garlic but still want scapes, Farmers Markets this time of year have plenty and are your best bet in finding them.
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 6 garlic scapes
- ½ cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- twig or two fresh parsley
- pine nuts (optional)
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
- In a food processor combine all the ingredients except the olive oil.
- Begin pulsing the ingredients and slowly add the olive oil until you reach the consistency and color you desire.
- Pesto can be used in a great number of recipes, so make a bunch.
