About Garlic Scapes

I just grew garlic & with it comes garlic Scapes, what is a garlic scape?
Here is some info about garlic & garlic scapes.

Scapes are stalks from the garlic plant. This is not the same thing as the green shoots in your garlic bulb that you (and I) pry out before using the bulb. Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pgoyette/633339806/
They store for a few weeks in the fridge or can be chopped and frozen for later use. I am using them in my daily cooking and they cook a lot like green onions and add a nice garlicky background to food. It's not an overwhelming hot garlic flavor. They are mild and tender.
You dont have to peel it you can just cut it up like a green onion.
Blender, scapes, olive oil, vinegar, salt/pepper. Puree it, and then use it as a dressing for pasta salad with some decent parmesan, and chiffonaded fresh basil along with the standard veggies you'd use. Tortellini salad shines. I'll also use this same dressing for sandwiches.
Scapes are unbelievably delicious if you like garlic.
I prefer them raw, but another thing I do every year is make a pesto out of them.

Some people turn some into pesto, eat some, pickle some, freeze some. And even dehydrate.
In Spain they are called ajetes and are commonly found chopped scrambled with eggs and you can add green asparagus and/or shrimp. YUM!
Garlic shoots (there's a chinese name for them but i don't know the anglicized version), which are bigger and look like solid scallions, they are YUM.

Pesto made with garlic scapes is WONDERFUL! Just use the scapes as the main ingredient, omit the basil from the pesto, otherwise prepare as usual. (You can garnish your finished dish with some fresh basil leaves, if desired, but the scapes will overpower the basil if used together in the pesto. DO use nuts though, to mellow it out. I use whatever nuts I have on hand, though I DO love pine nuts. It's just that they are too pricey for day-to-day use.
You can put it on everything steaks, baked potatoes, pizza, and of course pasta.
The taste is quite garlicky when raw and quite mild when cooked for a while. The texture, even when cooked, is outstanding, like perfectly done asparagus. Lots of people I talked to at the farm stand freeze the scapes without blanching them.
I've made pesto w/ chopped scapes (not the flower part and top), a little olive oil, and some lime juice, plus lots of freshly grated parmesan. Yum! I put it on toasted slices of baguette, but it would also be great tossed w/ hot pasta or topping a piece of grilled salmon. We also made a frittata with scapes and other veggies, and the scapes lost most of the garlicky kick they had when uncooked...I think we'll need to experiment with how long to cook them for the right amount of garlic flavor for different dishes. We also added some to a quick soup we made today, and they tasted mild, but the broth had a lovely soft garlic flavor. They caramelize very nicely in a skillet.

One person I met at the Garlic Farm stand said she grills scapes in a grilling basket. The way she described the results made my mouth water. I hope to have a chance to try it before the end of the brief season--the Garlic Farm says only one more weekend of scapes for this year. Then it's just what we've managed to freeze to last us through till next June. Sigh. At least by then we'll probably have local tomatoes.
I also pickle them, make pesto out of them, freeze them.....once people taste them they are hooked.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/din...