Wild Garlic Pesto

I am very fortunate to have a large section of delicious wild garlic growing in my garden. When we began landscaping the garden, I was digging near the trees, in what I like to call my woodland garden. While I was digging every so often I would get a waft of garlic, I couldn’t understand it, till I was told about wild garlic. For years it went to waste because I didn’t realise all the many very tasty recipes that were out there to be tried nor it’s delicious distinctive taste. This year I was determined to experiment with it and try out some new recipes.

pic: wild garlic leaves

The wild garlic started sprouting at the beginning of April, all in all, it’s probably fit to forage for a 6 weeks period, you can still harvest it while it’s in flower  If you are foraging in woodland and unsure how to distinguish between wild garlic leaves and weeds, wait till it is flowering so you can be sure. I do think it has a distinctive leaf but play it safe your first time out. The leaves give a beautifully soft, almost creamy, yet very present garlic flavour to dishes and I have found that the flavour of garlic gets stronger as the plant matures.

Pic: wild garlic flowers

Pesto is probably the first thing that comes to mind when thinking what to do with wild garlic but through my research, I have found recipes for wild garlic and cheese scones, wild garlic and cheese muffins, wild garlic salt and wild garlic and potato soup. In the pesto, you are using it in place of basil leaves, in the muffins and scones; chives and in the soup; leeks. So it is really quite versatile.

For the Pesto:

A large bunch of garlic leaves

50g pine nuts

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

50g parmesan cheese grated

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend till smooth, add extra water if you like your pesto a little runnier. Lasts for 10 days in an airtight container in the fridge. Cook up some fresh tagliatelle, drained it off, mixed in a few tbsps of pesto and sliced up deli ham.

P.S. I used this pesto on focaccia bread and it came out awful, maybe because the pesto was the top layer of the bread and it was exposed to a very high temperature for half and hour.

Note: Add chicken and pesto

– ham and leek pancakes

I’m loving this free seasonal treat.