Garlic Scape Pesto
Garlic scape pesto is creamy, piquant early-summer perfection. This is the original recipe from my Crisper Whisperer column on Serious Eats back in the late 2000s. It’s an all-time great.
Servings: 6 approximate 1/4-cup servings
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- ¾ cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes about 16 scapes with buds removed (see note 1 below)
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Instructions
- In a small, dry pan set over very low heat, lightly toast the pine nuts, stirring or tossing occasionally until just beginning to brown, about 2-3 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.
- Add the scapes, pine nuts, lemon juice, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment.
- Pulse about 20 times, until fairly well chopped and combined. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.
- Pour in the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the motor is running.
- When the oil is incorporated, add the grated cheese and pulse to combine. If you plan to freeze the pesto, wait to add the cheese until after you've defrosted it.
Notes
- If your scapes weren't just harvested, cut off a tiny slice of the bottom, which may have dried out a bit. For this recipe, I also remove the top portion (the bud) because it can have an overwhelmingly strong taste when raw.
- Use your everyday good-quality extra-virgin olive oil. You can save the extra-special stuff for another use.
- Choose a good-quality, freshly grated parmesan cheese. It adds a ton of complex savoriness.
- Serving suggestions: Of course you can stir the whole batch right into a pound of cooked pasta. But don't stop there. Tuck a couple of spoonfuls into a classic French omelet or dollop onto scrambled or fried eggs or a frittata. Spoon atop almost any protein from steak or pork chops to chicken or seafood. Dollop onto pizza or risotto. Spread onto a slice of sourdough and top with tomato — just to name a few ideas.
- Storage: Garlic scape pesto does not oxidize as quickly as basil pesto and will keep well in the fridge for several days, if not a week.
- Batching: A 14-cup food processor can easy handle a quadruple batch with no changes other than basic multiplication. I highly recommend at least doubling this recipe and saving the other half for a rainy day.
- Freezing: Garlic scape pesto freezes beautifully and mellows a bit in flavor when defrosted, so I often make an enormous batch or two when scapes are in season and defrost it when I need a little spring cheer throughout the colder months. When freezing, I typically hold off on adding the cheese until after defrosting, but it's not strictly necessary. Defrost overnight in the fridge for best results.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.25cup | Calories: 249kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 3mg | Sodium: 265mg | Potassium: 43mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 35IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 94mg | Iron: 1mg
QR code
Scan this QR code with your phone's camera to view this recipe on your mobile device.
