Garlic scapes are these curly things that grow from the tops of your garlic in the garden. They usually pop up early-to mid summer and they are actually how the garlic "seeds". The best time to cut them is about as soon as the start appearring, but be sure to gaze at them often, because they blend into the foilage and are hard to notice at first! I had to sit and stare at mine a few minutes before I noticed they were everywhere. Though if you don't plant more than a few garlic plants, you won't have to look so hard. I have two big patches of garlic growing in the garden right now as we love garlic and the flavor is SO much more amazing when you grow your own than buy that garlic at the store. There's no comparison.
But I really look forward to when the scapes are ready to harvest. Even if you choose not to eat them, it's best to cut them off when they start growing as they take away energy from the plant growing the bulb underground. You may be lucky enough to find these at your local farmers market. There are plenty of recipes for garlic scapes out there, but not many very unique ones. You will see a lot of the same ones out there, sauteed with butter and salt, pepper is most common and easy. Since they are mdly garlic flavored, but with texture of asparagus, they are good that way. I have a bag full of them to eat right now and I have been adding them to soup but last night I decided they would make a great pizza topping and I am glad I tried it! They were AWESOME on pizza! Here are the two recipes I tried and both were really good. I was nervous that the red sauce would overpower the flavor of the scapes but they blended beautifully and tasted out of this world.
We bought the inexpensive pre-made pizza dough at Trader joes, but any crust you prefer would work fine. We baked one on the pizza stone and the other we used a grill method, first baking it for about 5 min at 400 degrees, then sliding on the top rack of the grill (on low) and putting the cover over it. Keep an eye on this though, if it gets too dark on the bottom move it back to the oven to finish it. But it adds nice flavor and cooks it like it's in a woodfire oven. :)
Smoked Salmon Pizza w/ Garlic Scapes
Ingredients:
Premade Pizza dough of choice for a 10-12 inch size(or use a recipe of your own, there are many on allrecipes.com)
About 15 garlic scapes
2 tbls olive oil
About 1/4 cup hot smoked salmon (NOT lox), broken into small peices
Fresh grated romano
Mozzerella
goat cheese crumbles (optional, just don't use if you don't like goat cheese)
salt pepper
Roll dough per instructions or to specifications on lightly floured surface. Make sure it's on a pan or easily will slide to a pan before placing the toppings. Sautee the garlic scapes in about 2 tbls olive oil with salt and pepper to taste. Sautee over medium heat for about 10 minutes until tender. Brush the dough with olive oil from the pan of garlic scapes and spread scapes around the crust evenly. Spread peices of smoked salmon around the pizza evenly. Sprinkle about 1 cup mozzerella evenly, sprinkle a few tbls of the romano and add about 1/4- 1/3 cup goat cheese crumbles around the pizza. Bake at 425 degrees on pizza stone until it looks done, or use grill method (mentioned above). Voila, gorgeous delicious garlic scape pizza.
***I think this would be good with anything smoked like smoked sundried tomatoes, prosciutto, small bits of bacon, or even smoked chicken in place of the salmon if you don't like smoked salmon.
Pepperoni Pizza w/Garlic Scapes
Ingredients:
Premade Pizza dough of choice for a 10-12 inch size(or use a recipe of your own, there are many on allrecipes.com)
Pizza sauce - about 1/4 cup or more to taste
Turkey Pepperoni about 16 pieces(or veggie pepperoni, regular, whatever you prefer)
About 1/2 cup thinly sliced mushrooms
15-30 garlic scapes
1 tsp olive oil
salt pepper
1 cup shredded mozzerella
2 tbls fresh romano
1/4 cup shredded cheddar or cheddar blend
Roll dough per instructions or to specifications on lightly floured surface. Make sure it's on a pan or easily will slide to a pan before placing the toppings. Sautee the garlic scapes in olive oil with salt and pepper to taste. Sautee over medium heat for about 10 minutes until tender. Spread sauce evenly over crust with the back of a spoon. Lay scapes across the crust evenly. Distribute the pepperoni,sliced mushrooms and cheese over the crust evenly as well. Bake at 425 degrees on pizza stone until it looks done, or use grill method (mentioned above).
* The point is to have more scapes than any of the other toppings so you really taste the flavor, so make sure you don't "overload" any of the other toppings on here. Also this would be great without the pepperoni as well, but if you like pepperoni anyway it's great.
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