My Garden: What To Do With Garlic Scapes?

Toward the end of June – early July is the time to harvest the scapes from your garlic plant. You want the plant to send all of its energy into bulbs not into a flower producing seeds. So you cut the scapes off.

They can be used in many ways, you can cut them up and use them in a stir-fry or you can use them to make pesto. I made a delicious Garlic Scape Scampi which I will share on Friday.

With the majority of the scapes I made pesto!

Garlic Scape Pesto

Ingredients for about two cups:

9-10 garlic scapes, knobby seed-pods removed and discarded
1/2 cup (2.5 oz bag) slivered almonds
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Special Equipment – A food processor; a rubber spatula

Preparing the scapes – Rinse scapes in cold water, then roughly chop into half-inch pieces.

Processing — Pour scapes and slivered almonds into the bowl of your food processor. Blend for 30 seconds, or until a fairly smooth texture is achieved. Scrape down sides of bowl with your rubber spatula.

With the machine running, slowly add olive oil, and process until thoroughly incorporated, about 15 seconds. Then add the Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper, and blend for another 5 seconds. Taste carefully — you might like to add more salt and pepper.

Although this pesto is good freshly made, it is even better when refrigerated for several hours or overnight. Before chilling, place the pesto in a glass bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

This pesto can be frozen in an airtight container for up to three months.