Wild Garlic Pesto

Make the most of seasonal fresh wild garlic by using it in a delicious pesto!

There's no cooking involved, it only takes a few minutes to make, and you can either store it in the fridge for a couple of weeks, or in the freezer for a few months or more.

What's more, you can forage it for yourself when it's in season for free if you're lucky enough to know where there is some - but remember to only take the leaves and not the bulbs, and only take as much as you need. If you can't find any for yourself, you can get it from certain shops when it's in season, or you might be lucky enough to have a friend who has it growing in their garden.

Ingredients

• 15g blanched skinless hazelnuts
• 30g pine nuts
• 75g wild garlic, thoroughly washed, drained and roughly chopped
• Pinch of sea salt (plus additional at the end to taste, if desired)
• Freshly ground black pepper 
• 120g cold pressed rapeseed oil (organic if possible), or you could use a light / mild olive oil - plus a little extra to go on top if storing in the refrigerator
• 45g parmesan cheese (or pecorino), coarsely grated  
• Lemon juice to taste (optional, I'd recommend 1 tsp and 1 tbsp to taste)

Method

1. Lightly toast the hazelnuts in a dry pan over a medium heat, stirring or tossing often, until just starting to turn golden brown in some areas. Set aside and then do with the pine nuts, although it will take a fraction of the time to colour the pine nuts so keep turning and tossing them, then set aside to cool along with the hazelnuts.

2. Once the nuts and pine nuts have cooled, add the wild garlic first, then the nuts and pine nuts, salt and pepper to a food processor, and pulse them, scraping down as necessary until relatively finely chopped (but not into a paste).

3. Continue to pulse whilst adding the rapeseed oil gradually (I do in three or four glugs).

4. Scrape down, then add the coarsely grated parmesan and lemon juice. Pulse again until the texture is to your liking, then taste for seasoning and add extra salt and lemon juice if you think it needs it, to taste. 

5. Either store in a sterilised jar with a thin layer of oil on top, for up to two weeks, or freeze flat in a bag, so you can break any amount off easily (and it defrosts quicker than if frozen in an ice cube tray) tolast for several months.