Garlic Scapes Pesto

This weekend I picked up these odd, snake-like greens at the farmer's market here in Davis with absolutely no idea what I was going to do with them. After a quick Google search for "Garlic Scapes" I learned that they are the curly shoots of the garlic plant that have a more mild garlic taste. After tasting a piece raw I would say its about 1/4 the strength of regular garlic, if you would like to try using it as a substitution. It looked like pesto was the most popular recipe. I decided to try my hand at one. All of the ingredients listed below are close approximations at best. Pesto requires a light hand and frequent tastings to get right.

1 bunch garlic scapes
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup hard cheese grated
1/2 cup olive oil
5 basil leaves
salt and pepper


I started by loosely chopping the scapes. When chopping basil for a pesto I usually go for speed over uniformity because the blender does a solid job of sorting out the details. In this particular case, however, the scapes are very fiberous. You need to cut them down to at least a quarter inch, ideally smaller, or else you will have long fibers in the pesto and that can get stuck in your teeth and be miserable.

You can chop the pine nuts at this point if you prefer your pesto more smooth, I personally don't.
Add 3/4ths of the scapes and oil into the blender and pulse until it reaches your prefered texture. Add the cheese, basil, pine nuts, salt and pepper, reserving about a quarter of each for fine tuning. Pulse for three seconds to combine, then taste. Tastes too much like garlic? Add more basil. Too nutty? Add more scapes, salt and pepper. Too sweet? add more pine nuts. Tune the pesto to yours and your guests' tastes.

We served this spread on toasted bread slices and it was lovely. I  could also see it working very well as a base for a simple pasta sauce or even adding something unexpected to a salsa. Enjoy!