Most supermarket garlic is softneck garlic, bred for keeping. This is Rocambole, mild hardneck "serpent" garlic that forms a bulb on the end of its curving flower stalk. But I don't want it to "flower" -- it will take energy from the bulb below. (The photo at right shows what would happen if we let them straighten out and form a bud.)

Instead, I'll cut them back to the first leaf, where they emerge, and use the "scapes" in a simple pesto.

Update: Okay, my daughter and I made garlic scape pesto, using the recipes below as a starting point. A couple of things worth noting:

-- I had read that you only use the part between the cut and the white bulge, not the long "flower." It seemed wasteful, so I decided to wait and taste them raw when we cut them. First, the raw cut end, which was juicy with a concentrated flavor. Then the flower end, which was tough, followed by the white bulb, which was slimy. So we only used the middle parts of 12 young scapes.

-- Use a small food processor. We used a big one, and there wasn't enough in there to process it smoothly.

-- Here's what we ended up with:

Almost a cup of 1-inch garlic scape flower stems, no "buds"
2/3 cup coarsely grated asiago cheese
1/2 cup pine nuts
5/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
Freshly grated pepper
Sun-dried tomatoes in oil, well-drained, on the side.

After processing the scapes, we added each of the other ingredients in this order, half of each at a time, in two batches.

The result was a delicious concentrated glob that melted when tossed into hot pasta. (We used spaghetti, but a smaller shape would work better.) This made enough for four, with salad.

The flavor was intense but mild and very tasty. The sun-dried tomatoes added both color and a complementary flavor. It was really good, even to those used to a wet red sauce.

The texture was a little dry, but it didn't need more oil. Next time, I might add some lemon juice as the final step to make it looser. And there will be a next time. We picked only the larger scapes. There are more to come.

Okay, end of update. Back to the original post...

Blend:

• 6-7 garlic scapes, chopped into 1" sections
• approx. 1 c. olive oil
• 1 c. grated parmesan or asiago cheese

Or add pine nuts.

You might find garlic scapes at farmers markets. They keep for up to three weeks in the fridge, and the pesto freezes well. One blogger bought some that look a bit old and modified the recipe accordingly (fewer scapes, more cheese).

Garlic Scape Dip

½ cup yogurt
½ cup mayonnaise
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 garlic scape, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients together. Thin to desired consistency by adding milk.

Variation: For a salad dressing add 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar.

Chris' Garlic Scape Recipes

A couple of dozen more scape recipes.

Easy Garlic Scape Soup with Thyme