Fresh Garlic Scape Pesto (made with pistachios!) (2024)

Straight from my garden, let’s make fresh garlic scape pesto with pistachios (cheaper than pine nuts!). You can serve it on pasta right away, or I provide directions on how to freeze it for longer storage!

Homemade Garlic Scape Pesto

Looking for a way to use garlic scapes? Make this pesto! It’s so easy to make! Just throw everything in the food processor and it’s done! Pesto is my secret ingredient for simple weeknight meals. All you need to do is make pasta, add a little pesto and dinner is ready!

This recipe makes 1 cup of pesto, some you can use right away, and some you can freeze. I freeze pesto in ice cube trays and then pop them out to store in the freezer. When I need a fast dinner, I make pasta, add a couple frozen pesto cubes and dinner is ready to be served! Quick! Easy! I love it!

This pesto is a little unique because I use pistachios instead of pine nuts. Pine nuts is the most common pesto nut, but sometimes they are crazy expensive at the grocery store and I can’t get over my sticker shock. I found that using pistachios tastes just as good and is much cheaper!

Looking for more pesto recipes from your garden? Try my Kale Pesto, Edamame Pesto and Parsley Pesto too!

What are garlic scapes?

Every June our garlic starts producing scapes on the plant. To help the garlic plant keep it’s focus on producing larger bulbs I cut the scapes off and make a few batches of pesto to eat and freeze!

What are garlic scapes? They’re those long, thin, and curvy green flower stems that grow from hardneck garlic plants usually in Spring and early Summer. If you aren’t growing your own garlic, then you most likely will find them at the farmers market!

How much pesto do you need for spaghetti?

A little goes a long way when it comes to garlic pesto in my opinion. When I make a full box of spaghetti, I usually end up using ½ cup of pesto. I suggest starting with ¼ cup of pesto and keep adding, tasting it until you’re satisfied.

This recipe makes 1 cup of packed pesto.

Ingredients

• Fresh Garlic Scapes, you want about 1 cup when they’re chopped up so this usually equals about 10-13 scapes depending on their size.
• Pistachos are our preferred pesto nut. They are much cheaper than pine nuts! Give it a try with pistachios, but if you want to use pine nuts, go for it.
• Parmesan cheese gives it a little salty taste and helps the pesto stick together.
• Lemon Juice balances out the nutty taste.
• Other: salt, pepper and olive oil.

How to Make Pesto with Garlic Scapes

First we need to trim and chop the garlic scapes. To do this, trim the bulbs and light yellow stem off, followed by the woody hard stems on bottoms. You will be left with bright green curly scapes that you want to cut into 2 inch pieces.

Add the scapes into a food processor with pistachios, Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Pulse a few times until you have a crumbly pesto.

Keep the food processor running, and add olive oil into the food processor feed.

A smooth pesto usually takes about 30 seconds to process.

Serve right away over pasta, as a sandwich spread, on pizza or store/freeze (directions below) to use later on!

Storing and Freezing Garlic Pesto

Storing: Place leftover pesto in an airtight container in the refrigerator, good for 4-5 days.

Freezing: Can I tell you how much I love freezing pesto? It’s so easy! Add pesto into ice cube trays and freeze. Once frozen, pop them out and stick them in a freezer bag and freeze. When you need a couple, remove from the freezer. You can defrost them in the microwave, or they melt pretty quick over hot pasta or a hot skillet.

We usually cook pasta, add a couple frozen pesto cubes, a little bit of butter, and mix until the pesto and butter melts. It’s a yummy garlic butter pesto pasta dish that’s so easy to make on busy weeknights!

Pin for later: