This summer I am featuring some of my favorite garden produce recipes. For the entire list, see the Recipes page or click on the recipes label.
Have I mentioned just how excited I am about the garlic I planted last fall? Seeing as it was officially the first thing in the ground for the current growing season, and for a long time it was the only thing growing as spring struggled to make an appearance, I may or may not have obsessed about it slightly, or maybe even a lot.
The long haul from last fall's planting to this summer's harvest had a wonderful little intermission this month when the garlic scapes emerged. I had to exercise a lot of restraint to wait for the scapes to fully grow out, before harvesting them. When the time finally came to harvest them this weekend, I had no doubts that they were destined for a batch of garlic scape pesto.
And, let there be no doubt, this stuff is fantastic! I personally think it's better than my fresh basil pesto. Mike says it's good, but he still likes the basil pesto better. Either way, it still gets two thumbs up in our household. I'm disappointed that I will only get this one small batch, as only a little less than half of my garlic is a hard-neck variety (soft-neck varieties do not send out scapes). This might be something I will have to reconsider for next year... or find a farmer's market vendor to supplement my own supply.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted
6 garlic scapes
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated asiago cheese
1 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper, as desired
Pulse pine nuts in food processor a couple of times. Roughly chop (or snip with kitchen shears) garlic scapes into small pieces and add to the pine nuts, pulse a few more times. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper, if desired (With all the flavor in these ingredients, I skipped the salt and pepper all together). With the food processor running, slowly add the oil in a steady stream until desired consistency is reached (note: the original recipe called for 3/4 cup olive oil, but I only used 1/2 cup, which was more than adequate for a chunkier pesto). Stir in grated cheese. Labels: garlic, recipes
