•Garlic scapes are beautiful and delicious

Tag : Garlic Bulbs


This is the third in an occasional series this summer and fall thatLinda S. Mah and William R. Wood will be writing on their use offarm-share produce from Blue Dog Greens in Bangor. The series isintended to give you ideas about how can use fresh foods in yourhome cooking.

For garlic lovers and growers, it is the season of the scape.

Scapes, which I had never heard of before last week, are the flowerand seed stalks that grow out of garlic bulbs. Growers cut them offto encourage growth of the bulb.

Scapes are beautiful. Long, thin, deep green, scapes curl gentlyinto big, loose loops.

As Blue Dog Greens owner Dennis Wilcox placed a healthy handful inmy bag, I asked what to do with them.

They could be used like a green onion to flavor a dish or in asalad, he said, but, ``Most people use them to make pesto.''

And true enough, although various bloggers mention grilling scapesor tossing them in scrambled eggs, the No. 1 preparation choice forscape lovers is pesto.

Scape pesto follows the general formula for any pesto: somethinggreen, a good quality parmesan or asiago cheese, nuts -- preferablytoasted -- and olive oil. The benefit to using scapes is that thegarlicky bite of the vegetable eliminates the need to mince extragarlic. A squeeze of lemon will give it even more zing.
Garlic Scape Pesto
1 pound garlic scapes