Sunday, June 22, 2008

garlic scapes, how I love thee

So, like I said, garlic scapes are my new favorite thing. When you grow garlic, you cut off the stems so the plant puts all its energy into the bulb. Those stems are the scapes.

Why are they so awesome?
1. They look like this.
2. They taste like garlic.
3. But they're not as sharp as garlic, so you can eat them raw.
4. You can make this out of them:

Garlic Scape Pesto
(takes garlic scapes, peanuts, olive oil, salt, and about 10 minutes)
*Start with a bunch of garlic scapes. Five or six or however many they give you at the farmer's market.
*Cut up the stems into little pieces you can stick in the food processor. (Throw away the flower part - the bulgey bit and the grassy tapery bit above it.)
*Eyeball the stems in the food processor and add the same quantity of peanuts, or up to double that many peanuts. If all you happen to have around the house is roasted salted peanuts, well, that's all I have around the house and it worked out fine.
*Throw in other greenery - I put in some basil because the plant was right next to me.
*Dump in some olive oil. Maybe a quarter cup.
*Add a little salt.
*Blend/Chop/Whirl/whatever until it's the right consistency.
*Use it like pesto - on pasta, with potatoes, whatever. Or eat it right out of the food processor. It's like spicy, green, garlicky peanut butter.

(adapted from a recipe scrawled on cardboard by these good people)

6 comments:

erin*carly said...

can a different kind of nut be substituted [or just left out] for this? peanut allergies are stinky.

towwas said...

I'm sure it would be tasty with pine nuts (like a regular basil pesto) - I bet other nuts would work, too, and you could probably throw in some cheese like parmesan or romano or something. I just don't like cheese. :)

Anonymous said...

I like how casual your recipe is - I enjoy dumping and throwing and eyeballing while I cook too!

Anonymous said...

"Eyeball the stems in the food processor..."

I feel the need to write an entire short story based around that one line.

J.Po said...

Ooo..I had no idea garlic scapes exist! I'm thinking of planting garlic in my new garden (still a pipe dream) and now I have more motivation. Perhaps you can pay a visit for my "harvest festival" and we'll make many things out of garlic scapes.

erin*carly said...

oooh, pine nuts . . . i may have to give this to aaron to make next time we get a chance to cook together. he's much better at the cooking thing than me.

sadly, that may not happen until the winter. i doubt garlic scapes are available then. :: sigh ::