Garlic Scape Pesto

If you’re like us, you look to the seasons for what to cook. Get to the market, and we’ll show you what to do with your haul.

Today: Garlic scapes want to be made into pesto. Let them. 

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Before I learned how to drive, I learned how to describe garlic scapes. Anytime I was asked by a table in the restaurant where I worked, I answered, diligent and practiced: scapes are the tendril-like stalks that grow out of garlic. Then I’d say the soup that they were in was fantastic, and that if I had to choose, I’d drink the Viognier alongside. I was sixteen. 

I didn’t learn to cook with scapes until much later, and it wasn’t until I did that I fully understood their charm. They’re whimsical, their flavor perky but reined-in, like an eccentric but polite new friend. They became what I added to a dish when I wanted garlic but didn’t want to commit to its assertive bite. 

I’ve never put them in a soup of my own — something about closing a chapter — but pesto is beginning to make a regular appearance at dinner. Toss it with pasta, spread it on toast; thin it with more olive oil and it’ll become a happy alternative to whatever you’ve been dressing your salads with. 

Garlic scapes know not to overstay their welcome; they’re harvested early so that their fellow bulbs can flourish. This means you’ll have to find them soon, and cook them now.  

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Garlic Scape Pesto 

1 cup garlic scapes, thinly sliced crosswise 
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup good olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan 
Salt and pepper, to taste 

Get the full recipe (and save it and print it) here. 

Photos by Eric Moran