Garlic Scape Pistachio Pesto

I was blessed with a bag full of garlic scapes this week.  What to do with these delicious beauties?  Well, I combined them with fresh garden basil and parsley to make this pesto and pickled the rest.  For pesto, feel free to substitute the pistachios with pine nuts, walnuts, almonds or whatever you have in your pantry.

This pesto is great with pasta, or add a dollop to smashed potatoes or roasted fresh garden tomatoes- a marriage made in heaven! Oh yeah- makes a great salad dressing....

Garlic scapes blended with pistachio nuts, basil, and parsley. This seasonal pesto freezes well.


This recipe makes about 2 cups and easily doubles.


Ingredients:
1 cup       garlic scapes
1 cup       basil leaves (or combine basil and parsley leaves)
¼ cup      pistachio nuts, toasted a few minutes in a dry skillet over medium heat until fragrant
⅓ to ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese
1 to 3 tbsp lemon juice
½ tsp        Kosher salt
¼ tsp        pepper
¼ cup       olive oil plus more if you plan to use right away

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor, pulse to get them chopped, then process until uniformly blended.

Taste and decide if you want more cheese, or more lemon juice, or more olive oil or salt.

This recipe freezes well,  I use small plastic containers for some and 125ml canning jars for others- to give to friends.