Elephant garlic scape pesto (a two-week recipe)

Scapes — the curly flower stalks elephant garlic throws up in late spring — make a mild, grassy pesto that’s somewhere between garlic and green bean. You blitz them raw with parmesan, toasted nuts and oil, and it’s done in fifteen minutes. The catch is timing: I only cut scapes for about a fortnight in May, so this is a recipe with a shelf life measured in weeks, not months.

How do you make scape pesto?

Trim the woody ends off 150g of elephant garlic scapes, blitz them with 40g toasted nuts and 50g parmesan to a rough paste, then drizzle in 100–120ml olive oil until glossy. Season with lemon and salt. No cooking, no peeling — the whole thing lives in one food processor bowl and takes a quarter of an hour.

Elephant garlic scapes are milder than true garlic scapes, so this is a gentle, herby pesto rather than a fierce one. If it’s your first time, taste as you go and hold back a little of the oil — you can always loosen it.

The method

1. Trim. Snap or cut off the tough bottom of each scape; keep the tender curled top. Chop into 2–3cm pieces so the blade can catch them.
2. Blanch (optional). Thirty seconds in boiling water, then straight into cold, keeps the colour vivid and softens the raw edge. Skip it for a punchier, more rustic pesto.
3. Blitz the solids. Scapes, nuts and cheese to a coarse paste. Toasting the nuts first is worth the five minutes.
4. Stream in the oil. Motor running, add the oil gradually until it’s loose and shiny.
5. Season and store. Lemon and flaky salt to taste. Jar it with a thin film of oil over the surface.

What to eat it with

• Stirred through pasta — a heaped spoon per person, loosened with pasta water.
• On toast or bruschetta, under a poached egg.
• Spooned over new potatoes, grilled fish or lamb.
• Swirled into soup or a bowl of white beans.

The first year I made this I cut every scape in the field in one afternoon, then ate pesto for a fortnight. No regrets, but pace yourself.

How long does it keep?

In the fridge under a film of oil, about a week. It also freezes well — spoon it into an ice-cube tray, freeze, then bag the cubes for a hit of May in the middle of winter. Leave the cheese out if you’re freezing and stir it through after thawing; it keeps the texture cleaner.

Cutting the scapes isn’t just for the kitchen — it’s what makes the bulb below grow big. The full scapes guide covers when to cut and why it matters, and there’s more to do with a bulb in the recipes guide.

The short version

• 150g scapes, 50g parmesan, 40g toasted nuts, 100–120ml oil, lemon and salt. Blitz, stream, season.
• Milder than true garlic scape pesto — gentle and grassy, not fierce.
• Fridge a week, or freeze in cubes.
• A fortnight-only recipe: May, while the scapes are on.

Fresh scapes come off the field for a couple of weeks each May — they’re here on the scapes page when the cutting starts.