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Happy Tuesday! I just love a shortened work-week, don’t you? How was your holiday weekend?

Today, I’d like to share a recipe for pesto using the mysterious looking veggies above.  These curly green doodads are garlic scapes, and they were part of my Week 1 CSA pick-up. Garlic scapes are the immature flower stalks of garlic, and they are often removed to allow the garlic bulb to grow bigger.  I had no idea what to do with these super-pungent greens until my friend Lisa had suggested pesto.  You better believe it – pungent scapes = suuuuper garlicky pesto!  In fact, I brought a container of this pesto with linguine to work for lunch one day and subsequently brought it right home again so as not to offend my coworkers. So consider yourself warned!  This pesto is soooo good though – if you don’t mind stinking up your breath, it’s totally worth it 😉

You will need:

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Using Lisa’s recipe as a guide: 8 garlic scapes 1/3 c. walnuts (or nut of your choice) 1 c. olive oil

2/3 c. parmesan cheese

1.  Combine scapes, nuts and parmesan cheese in food processor; processing to desired consistency (I like hearty, chunky pesto) 2. Slowly drizzle in olive oil and continue pureeing until well blended.

3. Serve with cooked pasta of your choice or on hearty bread.

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Sooo garlicky. Sooo good.  Totally worth the stinky breath 😉

Have you heard of garlic scapes before? How do you prepare your scapes?