Foraging and making wild garlic pesto

DATE: 2018-05-05
AUTHOR: John L. Godlee


It was the Dirty Weekenders' annual charity ceilidh last Thursday, and there was a raffle to raise money for the Scottish Wildlife Trust, so I decided to make some pesto as a raffle prize. I got all the leafy ingredients from Roslin Glen, which is a Dirty Weekenders project location, and one of my favourite places in the world.

I collected Allium ursinum (Ramsons), Allium paradoxum (Few-flowered Leek), and Allaria petiolata (Garlic Mustard), all of which are really easy to identify and in full growth at the moment (late April). I used the following recipe:

# Ingredients

* 100 g garlicky leaves
* 50g Parmesan grated
* 50g pine nuts, toasted
* Olive oil
* Lemon juice, to taste
* Salt & pepper

# Method

1. Blitz all of the leaves in a food processor until homogenized, but not pasty
2. Add the parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, blitz again
3. Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan until fragrant, then add to mixture
4. Blitz again, but keep some chunky pine nuts
5. Season

Few flowered leek:

Few flowered-leek (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Few flowered-leek 2 (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Garlic mustard:

Garlic mustard (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Garlic mustard growing tip (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Garlic mustard plant (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Ramsons:

Ramsons leaves (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Ramsons plant (https://johngodlee.xyz)

The finished pesto:

Pesto (https://johngodlee.xyz)

Bonus flower, a Grape Hyacinth (Muscari sp.):

Grape hyacinth flower (https://johngodlee.xyz)