Garlic Scapes (Catching up, again)

What could be more lovely than two people breathing toxic garlic fumes all over the house, creating a hostile environment for all living things with noses? Nothing. Nothing could be lovelier.

Enter garlic scapes. Garlic scapes are the green shoots that grow from hardneck garlic in late spring, and are generally harvested while still tender as they curtail further growth of the garlic bulb. Although these are delicious stir-fried or roasted (so delicious), and although scapes store very well in the fridge, garlic scape pesto is perhaps even more delicious, and even easier to store long-term. Although I typically throw this together without a whole lot of thought, I keep the standard pesto recipe in mind: parmesan, nuts (walnuts if you're cheap, pine nuts if you're fancy), and olive oil to bind. Usually I skimp on the nuts, and don't do anything special at all, but I'm suddenly dreaming of roasted garlic scape pesto. That's right - roasted. June better hurry up so I can give that a shot. In the mean time, we have a few ounces of the raw stuff tucked away in the freezer. It is fantastic on pasta with roasted veggies and chicken, although I think it would probably make a mean garlic bread too.


Thoughts for future scapeyness:

• roasted scape pesto
• raw scape pesto garlic bread