I love this time of the year, its the start of the foraging season, during the Spring and the Summer months the great outdoors presents us with a wonderful array of delicious free food and in Spring I think it is at its most potent, its full of energy, everywhere is so green and fresh and going for a walk with the dog becomes like a trip to the supermarket. Nettles, Dandelion leaves, wild garlic and Violets are to name only a few gorgeous free and very yummy gifts that Nature provides to us this time of year.

On Saturday Hubby and I took the dog out for a very lovely walk and made sure that we came back via a very lush patch of wild garlic that we know about, being one of the first wild foods of the year it is just great to find as it is so versatile and can be used in so many different ways. Hubby made this yummy pesto and it is so full of flavour, it can be used with pasta, spread on crostini, served with crudités used in omelettes, swirled into soups and stews, perfect to have a couple of jars in the fridge or stored away in the freezer for an all year round wild garlic treat.

Almost hidden away in a moist and shaded woodland area the garlic is easily identified by its oval shaped and strongly flavoured leaves of garlic and pretty little white flowers. Always try to forage away from roadsides and areas that you know maybe treated with any spays or pesticides. I have planted a small plant under my kitchen window in a flower bed that nothing wants to grow in as it is so dark and damp, but hopefully the wild garlic will love it and next year it will of spread and I will have my very own organic wild garlic to pick.

Also later in the week I am going to make a delicious wild garlic and blue Wensleydale Tart, as its another Bank Holiday weekend I thought it would be great to have in the fridge for a simple and quick lunch, I will post the recipe if it is as good as it sounds.

So I hope that you all have a great week and a wonderful May Bank Holiday and if you get out into the countryside why not hunt down some wild garlic and give this very simple, very tasty and very versatile recipe a go. Happy foraging 🙂

Buon appetito

100g freshly picked wild garlic leaves
50g shallot, spring onions or leeks
50g shelled walnuts
200 ml olive oil, sunflower oil or rapeseed oil
50-60g mature hard cheese (Quick’s goats cheese , Parmesan or similar hard, mature cheese), finely grated
½ – 1 teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon sugar

Start by picking the leaves over and discarding any coarse stalks, damaged leaves or any stray pieces of grass (you don’t need to wash unless you’ve picked from road side verges, which I wouldn’t really recommend due to pollution!).

Place in food processor along with walnuts, shallot and 150 ml oil. Blitz for about a minute until the everything is finely chopped up. Fold in the grated cheese, salt and sugar.

Put into clean sterilised jars to within 5-7 cm of the top of jar. Make sure you press down firmly with the back of a spoon to remove any pockets of air (trapped air can cause contamination) allowing sufficient room to swirl the remaining oil over the top of the pesto to seal the surface.

When you come to use the pesto, stir it well before spooning out. Make sure the surface of any pesto remaining in the jar is completely covered with oil before you return to the fridge. (this is very important if it is to keep well).

Keep it in the fridge for up to 3 weeks – this recipe makes 5 x 200g jars, so any extra can easily be frozen in small containers so you can go wild with garlic throughout the year.