Kitchen Gardeners International: Garlic scape pesto

You don't have to wait for your basil or your garlic to make pesto with this recipe. For the uninitiated, garlic scapes are the elegant flowers that emerge from hardneck garlic varieties. Scapes are usually removed as a way of sending more of the plant's vital energy into bulb formation, or so the conventional thinking goes.

Ingredients:
1 cup garlic scapes (about 8 or 9 scapes), top flowery part removed, cut into ¼-inch slices
1/3 cup walnuts
¾ cup olive oil
¼-1/2 cup grated parmigiano
½ teaspoon salt
black pepper to taste

Procedure:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.

For ½ pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

Posted by KGI on July 8, 2008 12:47 PM to Kitchen Gardeners International
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