Kitchen Saviour - Garlic Scape Pesto

Sometimes you feel like you are doing everything you can just to keep the wheels on the bus. That is exactly where we have been lately. Not that I haven't been cooking. I have been. It just seems that by the time I think to take a picture whatever it is has been eaten or I have forgotten to measure exactly and write it all down. 

It all started with the return from Sint Maarten and Big Daughter's birthday party preparations which took the better part of every evening for a week. The birthday party was quickly followed by a weekend in Toronto which, while fun and exciting, didn't exactly help in our household/day-to-day organizational crisis. A steady stream of house guests and summer activities has kept me on my toes since then. 

I wouldn't change any of it, I love being busy and I love a house full of folk, but something has to give sometimes. I gave up on bathing the girls for a little while because that seems to take an age these days, but we started having people cover their noses around us, so I had to get back on top of that. I wanted to give up on taking the garbage out and sorting the recycling but that may have caused a health hazard. I tried to give up on laundry but then they came to fix our water issue. So, the rare moments to play around in the kitchen and try not to forget what I am cooking in the oven had to be put on the proverbial back burner while we just about managed to 'keep her between the mustard and the mayonnaise,' as my old friend Dana used to say. He was referring to motor vehicles, but it works for life with children too.

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Every year, I excitedly buy garlic scapes, the curly green stems of the garlic, as soon as I start seeing them at the market and I take them home and I put them away and a week later there they are, looking out at me, asking to be given a warm supper time welcome. Don't get me wrong, I love them but I have two little eaters that aren't as keen on strong new flavours - the littlest still only has two teeth and the biggest is becoming skeptical of new flavours in her old age, although as I write she is devouring some stilton and crackers as a bedtime snack.

Then, I saw it. The answer to my five day old garlic scape dilemma. Garlic Scape Pesto. It has made the past few weeks better in many ways. I have added it to sauces and dressings, substituted it for straight garlic, spread it on stuff and made the easiest and freshest spaghetti aglio olio there ever was. All devoured by young and old alike.

I am told that this will last for up to a year in your fridge as long as its covered with olive oil. I doubt you will need to worry as it won't last that long.

Garlic Scape Pesto (makes about one cup)

200 grams garlic scapes

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Remove the tops of the garlic scapes just below the seed pod and chop the bottom parts into 1-inch or so pieces. Put these into the bowl of the food processor and pulse until chopped.

Add olive oil, salt and lemon juice and puree until smooth.

Put pesto into a clean glass jar and refrigerate. Keep the pesto covered with olive oil.

Use the pesto to toss with pasta, to add mild garlic flavour to sauces, soups, dressings, toss it with bread cubes and toast for great croutons, add some extra oil and drizzle over tomatoes or grilled vegetables. Use it almost anywhere.