Monday, July 5, 2010

That's a Lot of Garlic

I'm always eager to try a new food.  I'd stumbled across a couple of recipes for garlic scape pesto, and, never having heard of garlic scapes before, I knew I had to try it.  I love pesto and I love garlic.  What could go wrong?

The garlic scape is actually the stem of the garlic plant.  We most commonly eat the garlic bulb, but the stems are edible as well.  Garlic scapes look remarkably similar to the green part of scallions, and I actually got them confused with scallions on more than one occasion.  I'm sure I'd seen garlic scapes many times, only I assumed they were funny looking onions.

After reading the recipes, I decided to seek out the garlic scapes.  I didn't have to go very far--I found them at the farmers' market.  I duly paid the price for a bunch of the scapes, then put them in the refrigerator.  Each day I would look at them and think, "I need to make pesto today."  But I always had an excuse.  After several days, I finally had the now-or-never moment and made the pesto.

The pesto is very similar to normal basil pesto.  I used the garlic scapes, walnuts (they're what I had), grated Parmesan cheese, salt, and olive oil.  Very straightforward.  I put it all into the food processor and let it go until it was the right consistency.  I then ate it with some cooked pasta.

The verdict?  I thought I loved garlic, but apparently I don't LOVE garlic.  The pesto was very garlicky.  So much so that I couldn't even finish all the pasta.  I must've had garlic breath for three days.  It was garlicky and pesto-y, but I don't believe I'll be having it again.  Garlic scapes are one product of spring and summer that I won't be looking forward to next year.

If you think that there's no such thing as too much garlic and you'd like to try the pesto anyway, click here for the recipe that I (sort of) followed.

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