Grilled Salmon With Garlic Scape Pesto

Tonight was one of those ‘what should we do for dinner?’ nights. It’s hot and I wasn’t feeling very motivated but I have a fridge full of garden and market goodness that I really don’t want to see go to waste. It’s such a first world problem…

Earlier in the day I had harvested my garlic scapes. Garlic, like all plants, really just wants to make more garlic. It does this in two ways. The first way is to create a flower, like so many plants do. The second way is to multiply itself underground by creating more bulbs. It goes in the ground as one bulb, and if all goes well, it comes out as a whole head of bulbs. The garlic really doesn’t care which of these two methods is most successful – at least I don’t think it does. But we do. In general we grow garlic with the intention of turning one bulb into a great big head of bulbs.

I gardened for a long time before I found out that by cutting off the flowering heads (which will also create these little tiny garlic bulbs) you encourage the plant to direct its energy only toward creating garlic heads underground. I’m really not sure why it took me so long to figure this out as I deadhead my tulips every year for the exact same reason, so the plant’s energy will go back into keeping the bulb nice and fat rather than creating a seed pod. Sometimes I’m a bit slow.

Anyway I knew that today was the day. The scapes are the perfect size, maybe even just a bit far along. You want to cut them while the flower heads are just barely beginning to develop and long before they turn into actual flowers. That is when they are most tender.

So after watering the veggie garden early this morning in anticipation of today’s projected heat I tromped out into the mud (ya think I could have done it before I watered?) and cut all the cute and curly tops off of my 40 some plants of hard neck garlic.

In the basket it didn’t look like much, but in reality, 40 garlic plants create a whole lot of scapes. It is kind of like harvesting or buying 40 green onions all at one time.

I knew that I wanted to use at least some of them to blend up a batch of pesto.

Pesto can be made with all kinds of herby things beyond the classic basil and I’d been itching to give garlic scape pesto a try. I’ve seen it made in several different ways, mostly with different nuts like pistachio or walnuts, but I figured I’d give the tried and true pine nut and parmesan version a try before venturing into nutty territory. I like to get a feel for the basics before trying more adventurous stuff. That way I have something to compare to.

This, therefore, is a pretty standard version, a blend of garlic scapes, toasted pine nuts, parmesan cheese and olive oil. I toasted the pine nuts because I like the flavour of most nuts better that way.

So great. Pesto done, though this recipe only used up about 10 or 12 of the scapes so I’ll be looking for other ways to use up the rest. Next question was what to use it on. 

I had a lovely salmon filet in the freezer that needed to be used up so I figured why not? After tasting the pesto raw I was a bit worried that the garlic flavour would be too sharp for the fish but as it turns out they are a great match. The heat mellows the sharpness of the garlic and salmon has enough flavour to stand up to the pesto. Grill heaven.

I simply seasoned the salmon with salt and pepper, then spread the pesto across the top and tossed it, skin side down, into an oiled hot grill pan on the barbecue.

Serving the salmon with some leftover salads made this a perfect solution to a lazy hot day’s dinner.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 10 minutes

Author: www.miasdailydish.com

A garlicky twist on the classic basil pesto, this sauce would be great on pasta but is equally good on grilled salmon or chicken, or even tossed with a dish of roasted vegetables.

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Ingredients

• 10 -12 freshly cut young garlic scapes flowering end removed
• 1/2 C pine nuts
• 1/2 C grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 C olive oil
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Toast the pine nuts in a pan over med-high heat on the stovetop for about 5 minutes until just browned
2. Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor, pulsing. You'll likely need to stop a few times to scrape down the sides of the blender. Do not over process, you want a bit of texture, not just a puree
3. Transfer to a jar or container and refrigerate. It will keep for a few days but can also be divided into smaller portions and frozen if desired.

Recipe Notes

Serve in pasta or slather over seafood or chicken before grilling