Garlic Scape Me Away

My favorite thing about the dogma box from Boston Organics, besides the fact that they bring it to you and you have to put in zero effort to get it, is the fact that you cannot make a “No List” for the dogma box. Which means, you get what you get like it or not. This, in turn, forces me to eat things I’ve never cooked or in some cases, never heard of before. The first time this happened to me it was with watermelon radishes. I had no clue what to do with the softball sized radishes. But I am very glad to say that not only do I now know what to do with them, but I also really really like them!

So this happened to me a few weeks ago when the kind folks at Boston Organics delivered me a big bag of garlic scapes. These things look like green bean versions of those fun straws we used to drink out of as kids. They were totally intimidating. So much so, that I didn’t even take them out of the fridge until over a week later.

I googled and googled until I was blue. The only ways I found to use them were in pesto and cut up and cooked as a side dish like green beans! Now, I’m not saying that as a side dish they wouldn’t be good as I have no first hand experience. But I just don’t know about crunching down on something that taste like garlic! Good for you if that’s your thing, but I’ll be passing on your dinner invite! The other problem I found googling these was that the people that made pesto with them only added cheese and nuts. Again with the severe garlic flavor!!!

So I modified the pesto recipes that I found online and came up with an amazing end result. I must warn you however, the measurements on this are old school like how my Grandma Montgomery used to tell me. I apologize in advance, but I assure you that if you can read this you can do it too!

GARLIC SCAPE PESTO

10 or 12 garlic scapes

5 or 6 handfuls baby spinach

1 handful almonds

1 handful fresh basil

½ handful of parmesan cheese

*Not the stuff made by Kraft, the real shredded stuff in the deli

1 lemon’s lemon juice

olive oil

s&p

Use a large food processor around 10 cup. I cut up the scapes into thirds. Put all the scapes and all the almonds in the food processor. Fill to the top with spinach (about 2 or 3 handfuls). Pulse until thin adding olive oil while you pulse. Scrape down the sides of the food processor, add s&p then 2 or 3 more handfuls of spinach, the parmesan cheese and the basil. Pulse again adding olive oil and scraping down the sides as needed. Squeeze in the lemon juice and stir together. If it's too thick for you, add more olive oil stirring it in. You want it all to be mixed together so stir it a bit.

The end result is a well flavored pesto that has a super bold garlic flavor, but won’t knock down your neighbors when you wave to them!

I tossed this mix with zucchini and pasta. But I think any vegetable you like would be awesome. I think when I pull it back out of the freezer I’ll try it on a grilled chicken sandwich with some caramelized onions and tomatoes!

The other great thing about this is it makes quite a bit and you can freeze it for a quick dinner later!