Snapshot: garlic scapes

Garlic scapes! They remind me of fiddleheads – which by the way, are also edible.

Garlic scapes:

• Taste like garlic itself, but are less pungent.
• Can’t typically be found in grocery stores; your best bet is a farmers market or to grow garlic yourself.
• Are the stalks of the garlic plant.
• Are usually removed from the plant, so its energy can go into the bulb.
• As the plant grows, the curvy stalk straights out.
• Should be picked as early as possible, when tender; the more time they have to mature the tougher they’ll be.

Although you can cook them by themselves, as shown above, garlic scapes are more often used in other dishes. They can make a great topping when chopped up, like scallions, and can pretty much be used in any recipe where garlic would be a welcome addition.

The most common way I found to utilize garlic scapes is within a pesto, however. Here are a few garlic scape recipes:

• Via AllRecipes.com
• Via Food52.com (with pine nuts)
• Via SeriousEats.com (with almonds and basil)