Pesto Recipe - wild garlic & walnut

I picked some more wild garlic yesterday and I’m going to get some more on Wednesday, I love the stuff so much I’d probably even pay for it if I had to!  With this bunch I made some pesto.

Wild Garlic Pesto

20g wild garlic leaves (well washed – you know what doggies are like in the woods!)

30g grated Parmesan

20g walnuts (hadn’t got any pinenuts but these worked really well)

75ml olive oil plus a bit more

~   Bung everything except the olive oil in the food processor and run on slow whilst gradually adding the 75ml of olive oil.

~   When finely chopped and mixed together up the speed a little and process to a coarse purée.

~   Taste and season.

~   Spoon into a clean jam jar, run a little extra olive oil on the surface to seal and put the lid on.  Keep in the fridge.

Pin for easy reference when wild garlic is in season!

This quantity makes Not Much!  Double up if you can.  Of course you could make normal pesto with basil and pinenuts using similar quantities.

Lots of ideas for Wild Garlic Pesto here.

After decanting it into a jar I scraped out the processor and spread the result on toast which I ate with fried tomatoes and cream cheese for lunch.

Today, as often happens, I had a modicum of leftover mashed potato in the fridge, the reason being that one large potato is not quite enough for my real man's dinner and two are too much.   I decided to make a more-complicated-than-the-last-time wild garlic potato cake.  

I mixed two teaspoons of Wild Garlic Pesto into the mash, formed a little cake with a hollow in the middle into which I inserted a nugget of Boursin.  I shallow fried the potato cake in olive oil and, at the last moment, frazzled a little Prosciutto di Parma alongside it.  The cake had a creamy melting heart, the potato was savoury and delicious (umami-ish) and the ham was crisp and salty.  Ooooooh yum. 

I had a glass of red wine with lunch and have a confession to make in this regard.  I often mention red wine and nearly always drink the same one at home.  Sadly I’m not going to tell you what it is as it’s cheap and delicious and often sold out and I’m keeping it a secret – sorry. 

Wild Garlic - delicious free stuff!

The past few days have been splendid, as you probably know.   Whilst wandering about in the sun I was delighted to find wild garlic. or ramsons as they are more formally called, and picked a few handfuls. 

Here’s a picture of them growing in Padstow woods.

And here’s what I did with my wild garlic …

Penne Pasta in Wild Garlic Alfredo 

This is easy, just add shredded wild garlic to a simple Alfredo Sauce BUT I made it extra yummy.  My real man had a burger (homemade of course, I’m surprised you asked) topped with bacon, red onions and cheddar.  I always finish it in the oven and whilst doing this I crisply fried myself some breadcrumbs in the bacony fat which had bits of caramelised onion in it, thus making a delicious pangratatto!



My meal was seriously delicious (I'd have thought so even if I wasn't such a bighead) and looked like this.

I also puréed some of the leaves together with olive oil, lemon juice and freshly and coarsely ground black pepper and marinated a piece of haddock in this for an hour or so then pan fried it and ate it with our first Jersey Royals of the season.

Lastly I mixed the remaining leaves with some leftover mashed potato and fried up a crispy cake to go with another piece of haddock cooked in bacon fat.  I hope I’ll be alright, re the bacon fat!

News from the future - see here for lots of ideas for using wild garlic.

In Other News

I had a lovely wiggly wander about Padstow; wiggly because I was walking around the hoards of people thronging the small harbour.

I had lunch at The Basement, on a street called Drang, with my friend Carol, she ate mussels ...

... and I had a wonderful Monkfish Madras which was perfect in every way, in fact extra perfect as it had a surprise Onion Bhaji in the centre of it.  With this I drank my first, but certainly not my last, wine from Camel Valley; Bacchus, a fruity white wine which was gorgeous.

Thursday my real man and I spent on the beach at Porthcothan  just laying in the sun, reading, eating a picnic (fairly basic but nice), he spent some time in the sea with his surf ski and we explored the coves and rocky places. 

You know, the Caribbean is lovely but it’s hard to beat a Cornish beach when the weather’s right.  For a start the tide goes out So Far!  About half a mile the other day and the beaches are interesting with caves and rock pools and weathered rock formations.  We had a lovely time and I’m glad we’d already got a tan because a lot of people left the beach rather burnt.