John, if you can stoop to buying dried hot peppers, you could get 5 from the bulk section at a natural foods store for the look without much flavor, then use your own powder for the flavor & heat. I used crushed red pepper flakes. For the wine, I used whatever I had. I think in this case it was part of a bottle we hadn't gotten around to finishing, but I also keep one of those four-packs of small bottles in the basement for cooking wine. Normally they say don't cook with it if you wouldn't drink it, but here you're using it for acid, so it's even ok if it's starting to turn. I believe chardonnay would be considered dry for the purposes of this recipe, and I know that is available in the four-packs here. I'm sure white zinfandel will be good too. That's a good price on peeled garlic, not much more than fresh. Next time I'll do that too. Melissa

I am going to add something here that is my opinion but not universally accepted. IMO spring planted cloves can produce nearly full sized bulbs and scapes if cold treated before planting. IIRC that would be a 40/40 or 40 days at 40 degrees which can be done in a refrigerator, provided there are no ethyline producing fruits, etc. also in that refrigerator. There is an old family old wives' tale in my family to plant potatoes on Good Friday, which this year is only a little past the middle of March and very likely our ground here will still be frozen. But you can plant onion plants and spring garlic bulbs about the same time as you plant your potatoes. Cold treatment for that would start about 40 days before ground thaw and can go on beyond 40 days for some little while at least with little problem. I am thinking of getting one of those cheap apartment sized frigs just for that. I certainly have a corner of the kitchen and an outlet I can devote to that. All the different ways one can handle garlics just has me in some sort of awe! One other thing: I found a relatively easy way to handle small garlic bulbs with their very small cloves. Simply break them up and strip off the dry wrappers. Then put the unpeeled cloves directly into the garlic press figuring at least two times the volume you would normally use for peeled cloves (IOW load the press up good) and just press them that way. I always reload the wrappers and give those a good second crush and then discard what is left. I do not like to peel tiny garlic cloves and now I simply don't. So I use a whole very small bulb instead of one large clove and throw some little bit of wrapper out. Works for me. Did I say how much I dislike peeling garlic cloves!

Garlic scape pesto! Blend scapes with olive oil, toasted nuts (pine nuts, almonds, etc) and Parmesan cheese. Add freshly ground pepper and salt to taste. It was a fantastic hit at my summer party!

Ah, that just makes my mouth water dcarch! You all introduced me to scapes last year (I had a whopping 6 of them) and I found heaven : ) None this year, sadly as I didn't have any hardnecks to plant last fall. Someone, I think functionthenlook, mentioned scape soup. Didn't have enough for that last year. What a wonderful bounty of scapes you've got! Hoping to plant some this fall. Doubt I can go another year without 'em, especially after that photo.