Change Up Your Pesto By Substituting Basil With One Flavorful Ingredient

The word pesto is a past-tense form of the Italian word pestare, which means to crush. This definition is actually more important than it may seem, because, indirectly, it suggests that the crushed ingredients in pesto could be anything so long as they're smashed into a sauce-like consistency. Traditionally, pesto is made with crushed basil, but it doesn't have to be. Pesto made with other kinds of greens is a fairly popular thing. And one of the best options in a slew of all the vibrant, sometimes stalked ingredients you could choose from is the garlic scape. 

Garlic scapes look a bit like spring onions or scallions. They're long, green shoots that spout out of the tops of garlic bulbs. Unsurprisingly, they taste like their bulby bases, though the flavor is usually milder. They're also a bit onion-like, giving them a more complex flavor than you might get from garlic alone. Once you cook them, they become both a bit spicy and sweet. Ground up in the food processor, garlic scapes become the basil substitute you didn't know you needed in pesto.

You can make garlic scape pesto in the same way you would "normal" pesto. For example, a basic recipe might consist of pine nuts, grated Parmesan cheese, olive oil, black pepper, a dash of lemon juice, and your greens of choice — garlic scapes, in this case. And if you want an even stronger garlic flavor still, you can always put a couple of crushed garlic cloves into your sauce, too.

On the other hand, if you feel like you'd miss the basil-y flavor of pesto, it's possible to compromise. For example, if your preferred pesto recipe takes 2 cups of basil, use half basil and half garlic scapes instead. This will give you that garlicky flavor without forgoing the basil altogether.

However, turning garlic scapes into pesto is just the tip of the iceberg. Besides basil, you can combine other ingredients with these flavor-packed stalks for a unique pasta sauce. Other non-traditional pesto recipes use salad greens, like arugula, spinach, or radish greens. Herbs like oregano, mint, sage, and cilantro work, too. Avocado and broccoli come to mind here as well. Anything that's green, flavorful, and from the garden is an option when you're creating new pesto recipes.

And it isn't just the garlic scapes or basil that infuses your pesto with flavor. Unless you prefer nut-free pesto, ingredients like pine nuts add crunch and a buttery flavor to pesto. Other nuts or seeds, like walnuts, cashews, or sunflower seeds, can also make your ventures into the garlic patch all the more enticing. They'll go into your food processor to be chopped up into fine bits just like garlic scapes and basil.

Finally, sun-dried tomatoes are popular in some pesto recipes. If you feel like shaking things up a bit, mix them in with the garlic scapes before you blend everything up in the food processor. You'll have a garlicky tomato pesto that's a tasty substitution for a classic marinara sauce.

As far as where to find garlic scapes to put into your pesto, you'll locate them in the produce aisle at most grocery stores. They'll be labeled as either "scapes" or sometimes as "whistles." If your local grocer doesn't carry them, take a visit to your area's local farmers markets, which often sell hidden gems, including garlic scapes and other hard-to-find veggies. Asian grocery stores are also good places to look when you want to get your hands on some garlic scapes.

If you grow your own garlic in the garden, you'll see the little green shoots peek through the dirt about a month or so before the garlic bulbs are ready to be pulled from the ground. You'll know the scapes are ready to be plucked when their stalks form a curlicue and they readily snap off the bulb with little effort. However, if they bend instead of snap, give them a few more days to slumber in the ground before you attempt once again to pluck them. The wait will be worth it.