This week in your Box
Lettuce
Broccoli
Bok Choy
Kale
Garlic Scape
" Know Your Farmer Know Your Food"
7 Things to do with Garlic Scapes
1. Scape
Pesto
Far and away my favorite use for garlic scapes is pesto, either
straight-up or mixed with herbs like basil and dill. Pesto showcases raw scapes
in all their glory. Scape pesto can be very pungent, but it mellows
substantially after a few months in the freezer. I like it best in the middle
of winter, but I think that's one part mellowing and two parts deprivation. My
favorite scape pesto recipe is below.
2. Grilled
Scapes
Another great, and very different, way to showcase scapes is to
grill them, tossed with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, over direct heat
for about two minutes. Flip them once, halfway through, and finish with an
extra sprinkle of flaky salt and maybe a bit of lemon juice and zest. They'll
be charred in spots and just soft enough, and their flavor will have sweetened
and mellowed dramatically. Grilled scapes are surprisingly reminiscent of
asparagus, and surprisingly different from raw scapes.
3. Scape
Hummus
For the same reason they work well in pesto, scapes are a
brilliant swap-in for garlic in your favorite homemade hummus. I think they
work especially well in a lemony, tahini-free hummus, which really gives them a
chance to shine. Edamame "hummus" with scapes works nicely too, and
color coordination is tough to argue with.
4. Scape
Compound Butter
Scapes would make a lovely compound
butter with a
little lemon and maybe some fresh thyme. You could use the butter to make a tarted-up
garlic bread, and I can't think of much (except maybe fruit—I do havesome boundaries) that could be tossed on
the grill but not finished with a nice slice of this melting goodness.
5. Scapes
as aromatic
To take a more utilitarian approach, you can slice scapes to
whatever length you like and use them as you would garlic, as an aromatic in a
wide variety of recipes. Scapes lose a lot of their bite when sautéed, more so
than garlic cloves, so use at least three or four times as much scape-age as
you would clove-age.
6. Scapes
as vegetable
Scapes also work well as a vegetable, cut into lengths and added
to stir-fries or blanched and added to salads, much as you might use green
beans. They're chameleons among vegetables, I tell you, though not karma chameleons.
Karma-wise, they're all good.
7. Scape
Soup
Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't point you toward Melissa
Clark's recipe
for double-garlic soup, which uses both scapes and green garlic. If you're not finding
green garlic in the market anymore, you could improvise with a few garlic
cloves and a handful of a pungent spring green like arugula or watercress.
What about you? Are you a long-time scape devotee, a
recent convert, or a detractor? And if you love them, how
do you love them best? Let us know in the comments!
THE
CRISPER WHISPERER: 7 THINGS TO DO WITH GARLIC SCAPES
Save Recipe
Ingredients
· 1/4 cup pine nuts
· 3/4 cup coarsely chopped garlic scapes*
· Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon
· 1/2 teaspoon salt
· A few generous grinds of black pepper
· 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
· 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
· *Or use half scape's and half herbs such as basil, dill and
chervil
Procedures
1. 1
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.
2. 2
Combine the scape's, pine nuts,
lemon juice and zest, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor fitted
with the blade attachment. Pulse about 20 times, until fairly well combined.
Pour in the olive oil slowly through the feed tube while the motor is running.
When the oil is incorporated, transfer the pesto to a bowl and stir in the grated
cheese. If you plan to freeze the pesto, wait to add the cheese until after
you've defrosted it.
Garlic looks so good this year |
The scape is remove when it curls |