Wild Garlic (allium ursinum) Pesto

This dish works well with any kind of fresh pasta.

Whereas commercially available pesto is often a very smooth paste (and many people like that) I prefer a rougher texture where you can bite on a piece of pine kernel, on a crumb of cheese or feel part of an actual leaf on your tongue. 

Therefore, when I make pesto Genovese (with basil and pine kernels), pesto Trapanese (with tomatoes, basil and almonds) or this one, I chop the ingredients rather than putting them in a blender. The rougher texture adds more flavour and bite to the pasta, I feel.

What you need

• 150-200 g washed wild garlic leaves, chopped finely (see Remarks)
• 60 g pecorino romano, roughly grated
• 100 g pine kernels (partly substituted by walnuts for a slightly different flavour), chopped
• 100 ml extra vergine olive oil

 

What you do

1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. While stirring, add the olive oil in a slow, steady stream.

 

 

 

Remarks

About the plant

This is probably one of the most seasonal of seasonal dishes as wild garlic (allium ursinum) aka ramson, buckrams, bear leek/garlic or wood garlic) is only visible in early spring (March till early May) and the flavour seems less pronounced, once the white blossoms appear. The connection with bears in the Latin and many vernacular names is that they used to dig the plants up for food and a kind of self-medication after hibernation because wild garlic is rich in vitamins A, B and C and not only has the same flavour as garlic but also the same medicinal properties (for more details check http://health-from-nature.net/Ramsons.html or http://www.twocrows.co.uk/kaleidescopes/text-pages/wild_garlic-text.html).

The leaves look a bit similar to the poisonous Lily of the Valley, so a little caution is necessary, but if in doubt, rubbing the leaf will dispel any uncertainty: the smell of garlic is unmistakable.  In addition, young Lily of the Valley leaves seem to grow out of each other, unfolding around a central shoot, wild garlic grows in individual leaves, each on a thin stem.

About the dish

It brings out the flavour better if you chop the wild garlic, rather than using a food processor.

Much of the flavour disappears if the leaves are boiled. If using wild garlic, as with garlic in general, but also with basil, add this right at the end of the cooking.

Left-overs stored in an airtight container (jam jar with a lid) can be kept for quite a long time in the fridge.

 

Freezing wild garlic

If you want to have some to freeze for a later date, mix the chopped garlic leaves with proportionally half the amount of olive oil mentioned in the recipe and leave out the cheese and the pine kernels. Put the paste into ice-cube trays and freeze in a plastic bag (unless you like garlic flavoured ice-cream…). Once frozen, store in a container and add a cube or two to dishes or sauces just before you serve them.