Week 3 Recipes - Garlic Scapes

Do you know what those long, ropey, green things are that resemble the tops of green onions in your Clarion River Organics delivery this week?  Well, if you read Katie Schwarz's emails then you already know they are garlic scapes and they are all the rage in the cooking scene.  Their season is oh, so short, the demand great, so count yourself fortunate that you got a bunch from CRO.

The scape is the green part of the garlic plant that shoots up from the bulb in the ground.  Not so many years ago they were just lopped off and thrown away.  But now we know that when they are young and tender they are divine.  With a slightly milder garlicky flavor and more earthy tasting than the garlic clove, the humble garlic scape makes a delicious pesto.  They can also be chopped up and used in any way you use regular garlic cloves - raw in a salad, for stir fries, in tomato sauce or perhaps in a batch of hummus.  

I love pesto and make all types - basil, cilantro, mint are a few that I like.  But garlic scape pesto is my favorite.  I like to use some type of short brown rice noodle like spirals or shells so that the pesto nestles in the nooks and crannies.  Since I eat plant-based you will not find cheeses in my pestos.  Instead, to get that cheesy flavor I use nutritional yeast.  Nutritional yeast is a very healthy deactivated yeast packed with B-vitamins, folic acid, selenium, zinc, and protein.  You can find it at Whole Foods or in health and natural food stores.  It does not in any way resemble or taste like brewers yeast or bread yeast.  It is a yellow flake (use the flake kind not the powder if possible) that dissolves into the food you add it to imparting that cheese-nut flavor.  If you must have cheese instead, I suppose parmesan would work in this recipe too.  

This is one of my all-time favorite late spring treats:

Garlic Scape Pesto 

1 cup chopped Clarion River Organics garlic scapes (about 9 scapes cut into 1/2 inch pieces)

1/3 cup raw walnuts

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1 lb pasta of choice 

Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whirl until well combined (about 30 seconds).  With motor running, slowly drizzle in the oil.  Stop machine and add the nutritional yeast and salt.  Process until incorporated.  

Cook your pasta of choice according to package directions.  Place a heaping tablespoon of pesto in each of six large pasta serving bowls (or just use plates).  Drain pasta when cooked and divide between the six bowls.   Stir to combine.  Serves 6.