Garlic Scape Pesto is not for the faint of heart! Full of garlic zing, it goes perfectly on pasta or pizza!
This is a continuation of my local Nova Scotia food series! These garlic scapes are so fresh and beautiful, they usually are cut around the beginning of July to really let that garlic bud grow to its full potential. These cuttings from the garlic plant taste just like garlic, and are so easy to cook with. Plus you are using all of the parts of the plant – no waste! Hooray for sustainable food!
So my first favourite food in the world (if you haven’t figured it out already) is chocolate. Second favourite thing? GARLIC.
Seriously. I don’t know if I can express how much I love it. I love it so much that when Mr. Nomato and I were first dating, the way he pitched his favourite restaurant in the city to me was that their caesar salad was so garlicky it burned. I was instantly sold.
Ah yes, that sweet sweet garlic burn… that is my kind of salad.
And this is my kind of pesto! Does it burn? ooooooh yah it does. This is the kind of pesto that you wake up the next morning and your shower smells like garlic because it’s leaking out your pores.
Have we gotten rid of the garlic lightweights yet? Is it just you and me? Good! Because they will never understand! This stuff is magical. I swear garlic scapes are the next superfood. Got a summer cold? This’ll clear you right up. Feeling down? This zing’ll put a spring in your step.
Step one, get yer scapes. Probably from a garden. I honestly have never seen them in stores, not even in a farmers market, just from family gardens (and one CSA box!). Take that with a grain of salt though, I might just be unobservant (very possible).
Clean ’em off, pat ’em dry, and chop into 1-2 inch bits. Doesn’t have to be perfect!
Stick those babies in a food processor with way more olive oil than you think is necessary (it’s good for you, right, RIGHT?)
It’s thick, so every once in a while you’ll have to turn the thing off and CAREFULLY scrape down the sides (please don’t lose a finger, this is delicious, but garlic scape pesto is *almost* not worth losing a finger over).
And it turns into a beautiful, thick paste! And ohhhhhh my goodness is it ever delicious. I made a bunch and we’ve had it on pasta. Burgers. Pizza. If you can dream it, you can live it, my friends.
As a wise man once said:
If you want to make ice cream with this garlic scape pesto, don’t let anyone tell you no. Because if you, like me, love that sweet garlic burn, you’ll be having dreams about this stuff.
Delicious, delicious dreams!
- ~7 oz. (200g) fresh garlic scapes
- 12 Tbsp olive oil
- Dash black pepper and salt
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Clean the garlic scapes, removing any dried bits or dirt. Pat dry.
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Cut into 2" sections (roughly - you're just cutting it small enough to process easier!)
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Add the garlic scapes, olive oil and salt and pepper to a food processor and blend until it turns into a paste, occasionally stopping and carefully scraping the sides. It will take a couple minutes of stopping and scraping for it to become very smooth, though it will remain thick.
Recommended for pasta (with shredded parmesan or reggiano cheese on top), pizza, on burgers, thinly spread on bread. A little bit goes a long way!
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