1 cup (or less) freshly grated Parmesan or other sharp Italian cheese
1 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice, to taste
1/4 pound roughly chopped scapes
1/2 cup olive oil
salt to taste
Puree scapes, olive oil, and juice in a blender or food processor until nearly smooth. (You can make a smooth paste, but most people like a little textture in the pesto.) Stir in or gently pulse the cheese and then adjust juice and salt to taste.
Serve the garlic scape pesto on crackers, on sliced mushrooms as an hors d’oeuvre, in celery sticks, mixed in with mashed potatoes, as a vegetable dip, smeared on a sandwich as a condiment, under the cheese on a pizza, between layers of lasagne, mixed in with breadcrumbs or rice and sausage for stuffing a pepper or tomato or big portobello mushroom, as a garnish dolloped onto a bowl of soup, scrambled with the morning eggs…in short, nearly any way you can imagine. Apart from dessert.
Scape pesto freezes well, and it holds its appealing green color even better than the traditional basil pesto.
Variations: Include walnuts, pecans, pistachios, almonds, cashews or other nuts and/or basil or parsley to the scapes in the blending step. Adjusting the ratio of scapes to cheese, nuts, juice, and salt changes the balance of garlicky flavor and heat. Use the balance that pleases the palates of your family members or guests, or that suits your mood of the moment. Try different cheeses for different flavors: Parmesan, pecorino romano, asiago, for example; be sure to sample before salting, as some cheeses have more salt than others.