Wild garlic pesto

Name: Wild garlic pesto
Prep time: 15 min
Yield: Makes about 700g
Cuisine: Italian recipes
Ingredients: 150ml olive oil; 1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced; 4 garlic cloves (fat ones if using spinach), crushed; 200g wild garlic leaves, if you can’t find any you can purchase from https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Natoora-British-Wild-Garlic-Leaves/229437011Ocado; 20g fresh chives, snipped; 100g pine nuts; 100g finely grated parmesan or vegetarian alternative; 1 tsp caster sugar

Easy
April 2014

Easy
April 2014

Makes about 700g
Ready in 15 min

Swap your traditional pesto for this wild garlic recipe during the spring while the leafy plants are in season and ready to be foraged.

You can learn how to forage for wild garlic here.

Vegetarian recipes

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Ingredients

150ml olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves (fat ones if using spinach), crushed
200g wild garlic leaves, if you can’t find any you can purchase from Ocado
20g fresh chives, snipped
100g pine nuts
100g finely grated parmesan or vegetarian alternative
1 tsp caster sugar

150ml olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves (fat ones if using spinach), crushed
200g wild garlic leaves, if you can’t find any you can purchase from Ocado
20g fresh chives, snipped
100g pine nuts
100g finely grated parmesan or vegetarian alternative
1 tsp caster sugar

Method

Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the spring onions and half the crushed garlic, then cook gently for 2 minutes or until softened. Transfer to a food processor and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, slice the wild garlic leaves (or spinach) into thin strips (see Know-how). Add them to the food processor with the remaining crushed garlic, the snipped chives, pine nuts and the rest of the olive oil, then blend to a paste.
Spoon into a bowl, then stir in the parmesan, sugar and some salt to taste.

Method

Heat 3 tbsp of the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the spring onions and half the crushed garlic, then cook gently for 2 minutes or until softened. Transfer to a food processor and leave to cool.
Meanwhile, slice the wild garlic leaves (or spinach) into thin strips (see Know-how). Add them to the food processor with the remaining crushed garlic, the snipped chives, pine nuts and the rest of the olive oil, then blend to a paste.
Spoon into a bowl, then stir in the parmesan, sugar and some salt to taste.

delicious. tips

Freeze in ice cube trays and then transfer to resealable plastic bags. One cube is about 1tbsp. Alternatively, store leftovers in a jar in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Pour a thin layer of olive oil on top before sealing.
If you can’t get hold of wild garlic (some greengrocers sell them in season) you can use the same weight in spinach leaves, but add 1-2 fat garlic cloves per 250g leaves. Try to get mature large-leaf spinach, not the small baby leaves.
To quickly and evenly slice leaves such as wild garlic or spinach, neatly layer up a stack of leaves – as many as you can control with your non-cutting hand – on the chopping board, then slice them all at the same time.

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