Perciatelli with Garlic Scape Pesto and Baby Scallops
While walking through Whole Foods the other day, I noticed that garlic scapes had made their annual debut. For only about two weeks of every year, farmers markets, and some grocery stores are flooded with these curly-Q link delights. Once upon a time, these scapes sat on the top of every farmer’s compost heap, but now they are making their way into the kitchens of garlic lovers everywhere.
Garlic as we know it, starts its journey underground as a soft bulb. Once it grows and hardens, a bright green shoot pokes its head through the soil and curls into a beautiful tendril. If these pliable garlic scapes are left unattended, they will harden and stop the growth of the bulb, making it a no-brainer for farmers to start snipping away.
Now that chefs and foodies are fighting over these once a year treats, farmers are getting a two for one deal by selling them off along with their more commonly seen bulbs. In my opinion, garlic scapes are best when eaten raw. Unlike raw garlic cloves, the scapes are far less pervasive and pungent.
Their flavor is a gentle and mild, almost a cross between garlic, green onions, leeks, and asparagus. When you snap into one, you can immediately smell garlic but the flavor is tame and almost grassy. When I saw a pile of the scapes sitting in a basket at Whole Foods, I got really excited and bought them all because who knows when I’ll ever see them again. People thought I was walking out of the store with two coiled garden hoses.
I got home and decided to make a giant batch of garlic scape pesto, which is the best way to utilize two pounds of scapes because the pesto is freezable.
I sliced them up and tossed them into the food processor along with lemon juice, Spanish Marcona Almonds, and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.
I decided to use marcona almonds instead of pine nuts in this pesto because the strong flavors of the scapes needed something a little nuttier than pignoles. I drizzled in a thin stream of extra virgin olive oil as the motor roared away, and in no time I had a huge batch of pesto.
The color was so bright and vibrant, it looked like a giant bowl of Chlorophyll! At least I know that my fiance isn’t a vampire because she couldn’t stop dipping her bread into it.
I tossed some Perciatelli pasta into a pot of boiling water and waited patiently for it to cook. Perciatelli is like a thick Bucatini but with a hole in the middle… kind of like a curly straw or a garlic scape! When the pasta was just undercooked, I tossed it in a skillet with a blob of pesto, some baby sea scallops and a ladle of the pasta water. The baby sea scallops were so fresh, I was eating them raw while the pasta was cooking.
They only need about a minute and you don’t want to overcook them. Unlike the large sea scallops, the babies are mild and sweet. The lime green pasta started to come together and I plated it with a fresh garlic scape and a torn piece of chewy baguette. If you’re curious about the Japanese anime character hiding amidst the jungle of scapes, that’s just the crazy wine label from Fetish “the V Spot” Viognier from the Barossa Valley, Austrailia. This 100% Viognier is as light and vibrant, as the pesto is. It’s wonderfully aromatic, with nuances of lime zest and fresh flowers. The acidity and crsip finish make this wine perfect on its own or even better with food.
Flavors of honeydew melon and citrus didn’t overpower but rather complimented the humble garlic flavors in the dish. We sat the dinner table, twirling and slurping away until our cheeks were green and our breath was deadly. During the two week long garlic scape season, it’s acceptable to have garlic breath because the scapes are just too delicious.
