After months of waiting for something – anything – other than salad greens and root vegetables to show up at the market, new produce is finally starting to roll into the farm stands. We’ve gone from having nearly nothing available to having so much produce come in, I can hardly keep up with all the canning! So far, I’ve canned over 16 pounds of strawberries, frozen 4 pints of chives and processed 2 pounds of garlic scapes into pesto. This week, I plan on picking some more strawberries, a few sweet cherries and possibly some sugar snap peas as well. I love this part of summer!
Usually, pesto recipes call for pine nuts. But have you tried to buy pine nuts at the store lately? They are crazy expensive – usually more than $25/pound. While they are delicious, I just can’t justify the cost when I’m processing pounds of basil or garlic scapes at a time. I used to leave them out entirely when I made garlic scape pesto, but the end result was usually a little too sharp and spicy, and it was missing something texture-wise. So instead, I’ve subbed in sunflower seeds – it adds a little meaty crunch to give the pesto more substance, and helps mellow out the flavor a bit.
The Parmesan cheese and sunflower seeds serve to mellow out the sharp tang of the garlic scapes, resulting in a slightly spicy and very flavorful pesto. Serve it over pasta, mix it into a grain salad, or enjoy it with chicken.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound garlic scapes
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
- 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Chop the scapes into 3" pieces. Pulse them in a food processor a few times.
- Add the olive oil, Parmesan, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, salt and process until the pesto forms a coarse paste.
Make Ahead and Storage
To freeze the pesto, pack the pesto into 1/2 pint jars, leaving 1/2" of headspace at the top. Pour a thin layer of olive oil over the top, just enough to cover the pesto. Put the lid on the jars and freeze.
I love garlic scapes, and this pesto sounds amazing!
I can’t get enough of it lately!
I just made some garlic scrape pesto myself. I got a ton of them in my CSA last week!
Great idea! I still need to locate garlic scape.
I’ve never used Garlic Scapes! I’ll have to see if I can find some!
Great idea to use sunflower seeds, I can’t wait to try it!
I love garlic scapes and this pesto look amazing!
OH pesto let me count the ways that I love you.
Too many ways to count!
Yes! Anything I can store in the freezer for quick weekday meals is perfect!
What a great idea substituting sunflower seeds for pine nuts! I must try that.
mmmm love garlic scapes and that you subbed in the sunflower seeds! I usually use walnuts or pecans 🙂
I love that you added sunflowers. I use them often since my youngest has a tree nut allergy, great alternative!
Garlic scape pesto is one of my favourite things EVAH! Gorgeous stuff!!!
I can never get over how pretty scapes are, too!
What an amazing pesto! I would love to have some of that now 🙂
Love the addition of the Sunflower Seeds! I have an batch of Garlic Scape Pesto in the Freezer right now too!
I have a ton of garlic scapes at home just waiting to be made into all the things! One of which will be pesto.
Mmmm, this sounds so delicious!
Garlic scape pesto is also great using walnuts – I usually use whatever type of nut I have handy.
Definitely good with walnuts too!
Love the idea of making pesto from garlic scape!
I’ve never had garlic scapes! I feel like I am totally missing out on something soooooooooo gooooood! I love the addition of sunflower seeds to this! I never would have thought of it. Genius. That’s it… Genius!
Yes, you totally need to find some scapes to make your own pesto!! So good!
I have some scapes from the market in my fridge….and tried a sample of scape pesto at that same stand. Forgot about it til reading this post! Thanks for the reminder! This is definitely what I’ll be making! That stand used sunflower seeds too. So good!