Curly, elegant garlic scapes are Beaujolais nouveau of veggies
Garlic scapes — curly and strangely elegant — made their entrance at Andy Terauds’ Acorn Creek Garden Farm stand at Ottawa Farmers’ Market a couple of weekends ago and should burst into profusion over the next couple of weeks.
“We’re a bit farther north, and they’re just starting to emerge,” said Kylah Dobson of Rainbow Heritage Garden, near Cobden. She said she expected they’d have scapes at Carp Farmers’ Market and in their CSA baskets by the beginning of July.
Scapes are shoots from hardneck varieties of garlic that farmers remove so they won’t drain nutrients from the burgeoning bulbs below. Or, as a blogger called Crisper Whisperer says, “scapes are to garlic as fusilli is to rigatoni: the crazy-bastard college buddy who never really embraced adulthood.”
These green adolescents used not to get much respect: many farmers simply discarded them. Now the advent of scapes is greeted with something like the craze for Beaujolais nouveau in the 1980s, and, as Terauds advises, you’re best to get them early in the season when they’re most tender.
Dobson says that most people, when faced with a curly pile of scapes in their CSA basket, still don’t know quite what to do with them. “I tell people that you can use them interchangeably with garlic cloves, in salad dressings, sautéed, or, we like to toss them with olive oil and salt and barbecue them on the grill.”
In Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Literacy, she says dryly that “those who fall in love with the curvaceous scapes are often determined to figure out a few uses for them beyond admiration.” You can find recipes for everything from scape lasagna to stir-fries. Here though, from Madison, is an unquestionably admirable recipe for a pesto that would be great tossed on pasta or hot potatoes.
GARLIC SCAPE AND WALNUT PESTO
Makes: About 1 cup (250 mL) Preparation time: About 15 minutes 12 garlic scapes, thinly sliced (about 1 cup/250 mL) 1/4 cup (60 mL) walnuts 1/4 cup (60 mL) walnut or olive oil 1/4 cup (60 mL) olive oil, or as needed Sea salt Parmesan cheese, for grating Freshly ground pepper
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1. Put scapes and walnuts in a food processor and pulse to break them up.
2. With the motor running, gradually pour in the walnut (if using) and olive oils until the mixture is smooth, adding more olive oil if needed for a good consistency.
3. Add 1/2 tsp (2.5 mL) salt, then the cheese, and pepper to taste.
4. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate for up to a week.