Garlic Scape Pesto

So in my garden I grow a bit of garlic. I planted about 20 cloves and the cats dug some up so I am down to about 15 stalks that actually came through. So tis the season for garlic scapes to shine! I have already used some in roasted potatoes, boiled them with my mashed potatoes, and will be making a garlic scape pizza soon. My mother in law Peri had an abundance of them left so I combined mine and hers to make this garlic scape pesto recipe. I froze them in individual packs to pull out later for garlic bread or pasta.

In the middle you can see the garlic scape that I left on the plant to ensure that I know the time has come to harvest.

Garlic Scape Pesto

(All the ingredients can be altered in portion, just use your best judgement!)

1 cup nuts (pine or almonds or both)

3 cups of scapes cut into 3 inche pieces

Juice of 1 lemon

Generous pinch of salt and pepper

Loose handful of basil leaves

I start by cutting all f the flowering ends off. Then rough chopping the garlic scapes into about 3 inch long pieces.

Next I gather the pine nuts and almonds and toast them until fragrant and warm, which is about 4-5 min on low heat.

After the nuts are toasted and scapes are cut they go into a food processor with a cutting blade. Then add the juice of  1 lemon, a handful of fresh basil, and a generous pinch of salt and pepper.

Pulse the mixture 20 times to get it chopped up. Next stream in the olive oil until you get the desired consistency. My kitchen smelled amazing but my breath did not. I ended up eating some peanut butter to curb the taste on my tongue and then brushing my teeth and tongue twice before it finally started to go away.

For the final step I just ladeled in a spoonful of pesto into freezer bags. I folded the flap over in half and neatly stacked them so they froze flat. I did a larger portion, a few regular size, and some small ones for bread-that way I have some variety of portion.