LEXI Wild Garlic Pesto

Written By Katherine Cakebread

This one comes from us via Scotland and my friend Lexi. Lexi is the friend I met in a pub during a dismal pub quiz. This is perhaps the least interesting thing about Lexi. Here are a few other stories - she raced across Mongolian on wild horses, she got married at sunrise on a beach in Zanzibar (with bagpipes, and yes I cried), she spends most years being part of the amazing community at Burning Man, she moved (two years too late) to the house next door to me and on the other side to the house Mum & Dad met (40 years too late), she’s half American and I think she’s incredible. You can currently find her in Glasgow with her doggo. Thank you Lexi for sending this over!

LEXIIf you are anything like me then while on furlough (aka lockdown / enforced, unstructured time at home with those you love / are physically obliged to be close to) then you have been congratulating yourself on all the time you now have to g…

LEXI

If you are anything like me then while on furlough (aka lockdown / enforced, unstructured time at home with those you love / are physically obliged to be close to) then you have been congratulating yourself on all the time you now have to get on with those things you never had time to do before. 

The immediate impact of this is to take up a whole host of new hobbies and interests. This could be for a few hours, days or, if you are more focused, perhaps until even now. The master to do list however does not decrease in length.

Giblets (the dog) loves lockdown as suddenly there is a focus on ‘take the dog for a walk time’. It was on one of these walks in the glen that my daddy longlegs of a mind (note: crane fly not spider) alighted upon the idea to make various things with foraged wild garlic.

2. GIBLETS.jpg

This article is my newest new thing to do with all the time I am making the most of. I have taken a fairly long time to get around to writing due to a high level of competing, increasingly more far-fetched, priorities.

Sadly, you will most likely have missed Wild Garlic Season 2020 by the time you read this - unless of course you live in a shady patch of woodland somewhere north of Fort William. However, I am sure that it will work just as well in 2021 and that gives you something to look forward to.

Step 1 – Forage for Leaves

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Wild garlic grows throughout the UK starting in early spring. It is easy to identify them when they start to flower, but ideally you want to get the young leaves, before flowering or during early flowering as these have a stronger, more fiery taste. For salads, these can be a little too much so, if you are only going foraging once, get a mixture of young leaves and some older ones. The more mature leaves will be a deeper green. You can also eat the flowers or use them as a garnish and be all cheffy.

Be a good forager. Don’t take whole plants, take a few leaves / flowers from each one so as not to kill them. 

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Here follows my use of leaves for pesto.

Step 2 – Align your ingredients

Wash the garlic leaves – they may have bugs, woodland debris.. snail tracks.. if you are OK with that, then don’t wash them. You probably won’t die. (not a medical opinion)

Get out all the stuff you need 

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  • Food processor (I mean you can use a pestle an mortar too but I did not)

  • Parmesan cheese 

    • Cheese grater

  • Pine nuts

    • Something to toast them in

  • Lemon (unwaxed)

  • Olive oil

Step 3 – Make pesto

14. Pesto.jpg

Quantities of each thing depend on how you want it to taste. I measured nothing and loved the result. I used:

  • Half a Triangle of parmesan

  • Lemon zest of one lemon and  half the lemon’s juice

  • Half a pack of pine nuts (around 75g) – TOASTED

  • Enough garlic leaves to almost fill the processor bowl.. so like.. 3ish big handfuls, if your hands are medium size.. look at the pictures, but really this was not an exact science

  • Olive oil.. not much in my recipe – about 2tbsp

Method:

  • Chop the wild garlic roughly and put in the processor

  • Toast the pine nuts - add to the processor

  • Grate the parmesan - add to the processor

  • Zest the lemon and add this and the juice to the processor

  • Push start on the processor and add the olive oil as it spins

  • If it is not blending, stop the blades and spoon it about a bit, restart the blades

  • I added some water to loosen it a little, but you could add more oil if you prefer

Taste it – most likely it is delicious as parmesan makes it salty, its fatty and creamy and garlicy and.. zingy. If you don’t like it you can try adding in some more of any of the things, or salt. This is up to you. 

I personally do not use much oil as I like to use it as a relish / condiment. Oil can always be added later if you decide to use it in a pasta. 

And you are done.

If you are like me – you will think it is the most amazing thing ever and go out again the next week and forage more. This time though you will make industrial quantities of it. If this is what happens, know that it freezes well. Use a muffin tray, freeze in batches and you end up with wild garlic pesto pucks to use all year. 

Uses for Wild Garlic Pesto

Now that you have too much pesto here are some ideas as to how to eat it. 

  • Add to salads or green soups

  • Salami and cheese on toast with wild garlic relish

  • Wild garlic pesto pasta

    • Capers

    • Bacon

    • Cherry Tomatoes

    • Petit pois

    • Parmesan

    • Olive oil

  • Homemade pizzas

You can also make wild garlic humus. I made loads of it, turns out, I don’t like humus. Who knew. But if you like humus, then totally make humus too. 

Katherine Cakebread
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