Garlic Scape Pesto!

On Tuesday I picked up half a pound of garlic scapes at the farmers market:

A scape is the flowering stem which rises from the roots or crown of a plant. A garlic scape has a mild garlic flavor without the bite of too much garlic (to me there is no such thing). My impetus for getting the scapes was pesto. Garlic scape pesto is a great alternative to traditional basil pestos. Pesto freezes extremely well so I decided to make a larger quantity for storage purposes.

Ingredients:

1 cup of garlic scapes, cut into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces (approx. 1/4 lb)

1/3 of a cup of slightly crushed walnuts

3/4 of a cup of olive oil (a little less is perfectly fine)

1/2 cup of cubed or grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/2 teaspoon salt (I prefer kosher salt)

a pinch of black pepper

First the scapes are cut into appropriate sized pieces and place them into the bowl of a food processor:

Next add the walnuts, cheese, salt, and pepper to the bowl:

Blend the ingredients until they are well combined:

Slowly add about half the oil and blend again. Repeat this process with remaining oil blending until desired texture is reached:

This yields about 6 ounces of garlicky delicious pesto. A serving is anywhere between 1 and 2 tablespoons depending on preference.

With my 1/2 lb of scapes I ended up with 2 batches of scape pesto in need of a home. I spooned them into a mini ice cube tray and froze them:

Each cube is 1.5 to 2 teaspoons worth of pesto:

Each batch yields about 36 delicious cubes. One serving is between 3 and 5 cubes depending on preference.

Now we have enough garlic pesto for the foreseeable future. It goes great with tofu, chicken, pasta (hot or cold) omelette's, pizza.