Wild Garlic Pesto

Just as vibrant in colour as it is in taste, wild garlic pesto is delicious thrown through pasta, swirled through soups and stews or served as a condiment to baked potatoes or a perfectly roast chicken. Wild Garlic is abundant at this time of the year and can be found and foraged in almost all woodland areas. When picking it it’s best to try and pick the leaves from an area that’s less likely to have been trampled on to ensure you get the best leaves possible and if you are unsure of whether the leaves are wild garlic the best way to check is to crush the leaves in your palm and take a good sniff. If it smells like garlic, then you’ve picked the right plant!

The below recipe is the one we follow but there are lots of adjustments you can make depending on taste, toasted hazelnuts can be a delicious addition and for those that like a sharper flavour add slightly more lemon.

Ingredients

100g wild garlic leaves

50g parmesan cheese

50g toasted pine nuts

1-2 tablespoons of olive oil

Lemon juice

Salt and Pepper

Method

Wash wild garlic leaves thoroughly.

Place the leaves, parmesan, olive oil and nuts into a food processor and blitz. You could also do this with a pestle and mortar if you want to be more traditional.

Add further oil if you wish to have a thinner texture and mix.

Add in your salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste.