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Wild garlic pesto
The woods are awash with a sea of fresh, green wild garlic so I thought I would try to make pesto. Every recipe I look at uses different nuts, pignuts (whatever they are), pinenuts, hazelnuts, almonds, almost every type of nut I've heard of. Have any of you experimented and if so which nuts do you feel works best?
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Pine nuts are the traditional one for classic pesto. I think the taste of almonds may overwhelm the wild garlic a bit. Maybe blanched almonds would be OK.
I have only tasted my friend's wild garlic pesto made with pine nuts and it is delicious. I have a few plants she gave me which I am nurturing for a good crop to make my own one day.
I've used pine nuts with basil (classic) , and cob (hazel) nuts with parsley. I've also used almonds but I can't remember which green herb I used with it. Would love to have easy access to some wild garlic to experiment with.
If there's so much of it I'd be tempted to make small quantities with each different nut and see which you like most.
You can freeze it if you want to make some to use later in the year.
Last edited: 23 March 2017 11:11:22
Sorry, I meant hazelnuts may be too strong. Doh!
On the few occasions I've had access to enough wild garlic I've used pine nuts, but I imagine that toasted and skinned hazelnuts would be delicious too.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Pignut is a small umbellifer with a little brown rhizome and it grows wild in my meadow area and has 'always' been here. The badgers sometimes dig it up, though they generally prefer the worms and grubs in the sheep fields. Harvesting it would be a bit of a chore, so I think I will stick to pine nuts for my attempt at pesto, though it will be a bit longer yet before the garlic is in its full glory!
The garlic arrived by itself and when I spotted the seedling plant, I moved it to my 'dell' to grow with bluebell and red campion - they look lovely together. There is more each year but I have another suitable area for it to grow, so can move some there too.
I started making my own pesto a year or so ago and am now a complete addict and make it at least once a week. I was saying to my wife only the other day that there isn't anything better than the taste of fresh home made pesto.
Although you can experiment until your heart is content, I tend to only use pine nuts (that have been browned off in a hot pan).
Something that I can not recommend highly enough is the use of spinach. You can make a spinach pistou by using 3/4 spinach and 1/4 basil and added a couple of bits of sundried tomato. Tastes wonderfully earthy (in a good way) with pasta or baked salmon etc.. Its also cheaper to make as you can get a lot more spinach for your money compared to the equivalent basil.
Thank you everyone, I shall start with pine nuts then experiment with later batches. Never thought of freezing it, makes sense as wildgarlic is seasonal. One recipe I read suggests using the flowers with the leaves but right now, before the flowers appear, it looks perfect for eating. Torg's recipe made my mouth water. Once the garlic harvest is over I shall try it.
I've made a lovely pesto sauce with walnuts, too. A different taste but quite nice. I use Black Walnut oil instead of olive oil when I make it with walnuts.
Thanks Peggy, seems that I am going to have a lot of experimenting to do! You are talking about regular basil pesto with walnuts?
Yes, your regular basil pesto but use walnuts instead of the pine nuts. Very good!