Jar of wild garlic pesto

Wild garlic pesto

By Barney Desmazery
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(16 ratings)
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Prep: 15 mins Cook: 2 mins

Easy

Makes 275g jar

Transform your foraging finds into a tangy sauce by combining wild garlic leaves with parmesan, garlic, lemon and pine nuts. Or, use fresh young nettles

Nutrition and extra info

  • Gluten-free
  • Vegetarian

Nutrition: per tbsp

  • kcal65
  • fat7g
  • saturates1g
  • carbs0g
  • sugars0g
  • fibre0g
  • protein1g
  • salt0g
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Ingredients

  • 150g wild garlic leaves or young nettles, or a mixture (foraged – see tip)
  • 50g parmesan or vegetarian alternative, finely grated
    Parmesan

    Parmesan

    parm-ee-zan

    Parmesan is a straw-coloured hard cheese with a natural yellow rind and rich, fruity flavour. It…

  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • ½ lemon, zested and a few squeezes of juice
    Lemon

    Lemon

    le-mon

    Oval in shape with a pronouced bulge on one end, lemons are one of the most versatile…

  • 50g pine nuts, toasted
  • 150ml rapeseed oil
    Rapeseed oil

    Rapeseed oil

    If you want a light alternative to other cooking oils, rapeseed is a great choice and has…

Method

  1. Rinse and roughly chop the wild garlic leaves. 

  2. Blitz the wild garlic leaves, parmesan, garlic, lemon zest and pine nuts to a rough paste in a food processor. Season, and with the motor running slowly, add almost all the oil. Taste, season and add a few squeezes of lemon juice.  

  3. Transfer the pesto to a clean jar and top with the remaining oil. Will keep in the fridge for two weeks.

  • Recipe Tip

    Use nettles

    If you're making this pesto with nettles, bring a large pan of water to the boil, then drop in the nettles and cook for 2 mins. Drain and run under cold water, then squeeze out as much water as possible before roughly chopping them, and adding to the food processor as above. 

  • Recipe Tip

    Barney’s foraging rules

    Take a pocket guidebook, and check it before picking anything. Make sure that it's legal to forage in a public area or that you have the landowner’s permission. Use all your senses to identify the plants you're looking for; it may look similar to wild garlic but if it doesn’t smell of garlic – don’t eat it! Never pick leaves next to busy roads or lanes, or low down, where dogs are regularly walked. If foraging for stinging nettles, wear gloves when picking and make sure to cook properly.

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Comments, questions and tips

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trishagreen's picture
trishagreen
2nd May, 2020
I thought I’d missed wild garlic season, but I found a huge patch on a walk today. Easy recipe to make and it tasted delicious. Great tip on here to stir in the Parmesan at the end rather than blend it.
Charlotte Hitchen's picture
Charlotte Hitchen
24th Apr, 2020
4.05
Nice easy recipe, I did it with wild garlic alone and I though it was just to over powering and I did not add the extra garlic clove. Just a little on the tart side I though, but I'm going to be having it with that nettle pasta so I think it will go really nice with that.
catherinedowney
16th Apr, 2020
5.05
Brilliant and so satisfying to use wild garlic growing in the garden. First time I have used the wild garlic, but I definitely will again. Pesto has a vibrant colour and is so tasty
missjackiebeee
14th Apr, 2020
5.05
What a great and simple recipe! I have loads of nettle outside my place so this is a fab way of utilising what's available. I added some plain yoghurt to make it go a little further and dilute it a little bit as the flavours together are quite strong. A recipe I will use again. Thanks.
Fwood
17th May, 2016
Can this be frozen?
derekthecat
11th Apr, 2017
You can freeze it if you make it with everything except the cheese - beat this in with some butter after it's thawed.
Jum1
26th Apr, 2015
Can you use dandelion leaves instead?
goodfoodteam's picture
goodfoodteam
12th May, 2015
Hi Jum1,  thanks for getting in touch. We would suggest that a few dandelion leaves would be fine, combined with the wild garlic but to just use dandelion leaves would produce a very bitter result so we wouldn't advise doing so.
derekthecat
11th Apr, 2017
I'm trying this tonight, we have nettles and wild garlic growing in the woods behind our house. One pesto tip that non-Italian recipes (including this one) often get wrong - NEVER, EVER put parmesan in the food processor. Grate it and beat it in afterwards with some butter. Otherwise the oil comes out of the cheese and makes the pesto glutinous and unpleasant.
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