Wednesday 3 March 2010

Wild Garlic Pesto

This recipe is c/o Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall:

Ingredients:

100g freshly picked wild garlic leaves
50g shallot, spring onion or leek
50g shelled walnuts
200ml olive, sunflower or rapeseed oil
50-60g mature hard cheese - finely grated
1/2 - 1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp sugar

Pick the leaves over and discard any stalks, damaged leaves or stray pieces. Wash.
Place in food processor along with walnuts, shallot and 150 ml of oil.
Blitz for about a minute till everything is finely chopped up.
Fold in grated cheese, salt and sugar.

Fill into clean, sterilised jars to within 5-7 cm of top.
Press down firmly with the back of a spoon to remove any air pockets, allowing sufficient room to swirl the remaining oil over the top f 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 returning to the fridge - this is very important.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I've just discovered your lovely blog, via 'Food for Friends Yeah'. Where did you find your wild garlic leaves? There are many recipes I'd like to try, but the leaves elude me.

BeadBag said...

Laura thank you very much for your lovely comment. Firstly, and unfortunately the wild garlic comes from my garden (sorry), and secondly, thank you for critting Chris & Jeff Galvin's restaurant/s in Spitalfields - I will be trying these out.
..... if you manage to get hold of some wild garlic bulbs - - they grow like mad once they get started.