Garlic Scapes

My husband and I certainly enjoy splurging when dining out, but we also enjoy cooking at home quite a bit. What really catapulted us into cooking was signing up for CSA (community supported agriculture). Every week, we pick up a box of fresh organic produce that was picked from a local farm. The CSA has changed our lives...we were introduced to a lot of vegetables that we normally wouldn't buy, we were forced to cook, and we also had to learn how to prepare quick delicious meals (since we both work quite a bit...gotta support that dining out habit of ours!).

Last weekend was our first CSA delivery, and we were introduced to garlic scapes! These beautiful curvaceous tendrils packed a punch in the garlic scape and green onion pesto that I made. All in all, the pesto was a winner...we wound up finding several uses for it. The pesto was amazing on the hot italian sausages we had. It also made for an tasty spread for crusty french bread. Diluted with extra virgin olive oil, it served as a spicy salad dressing.

Here's the recipe for garlic scape and green onion pesto:

2 garlic scapes, coursely chopped

2 green onions, coursely chopped

1 teaspoon honey

2 teaspoons dijon or brown mustard

4 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

dash of salt

ground pepper to taste

approx 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oils - use as much/little as you like for the desired consistency

Throw it all in a blender and go! Substitutes are super easy. You basically just need ingredients that are garlicy, oniony, sweet, spicy, sour and salty. For example, we didn't happen to have honey, so I used agave. Enjoy!