If the Easter Bunny made Pesto… Wild Garlic, Nettles and Hazelnuts
Spring is coming when the wild garlic appears, interspersed with bluebells, daffodils and anemones. In the title picture, the wide leaves are the wild garlic; the narrow bunch are bluebells. Just saying. We all know what nettles look like, but I’m afraid the hazelnuts and cheese are out of a packet and the olive oil and lemon probably won’t be foraged either. Without the slightly cloying taste of basil pesto, this one will pep up pasta; or a dollop on some meat or fish would be good too, as it keeps for yonks in the fridge, particularly with a slick of olive oil to cover. Really good in a Caesar salad too.
- 30g wild garlic
- 20g nettles – just the top 5 or 6 young leaves picked with gloved hands. Blanch for a minute in boiling water, then drain and squeeze dry. The sting will be gone…
- 25g chopped hazelnuts
- 25g parmesan – grated
- half a lemon – juiced
- black pepper
- 40ml-60ml olive oil
Whiz everything together in a mini-blender or spice grinder, adding enough oil to get a satisfyingly sludgy bright green, coarse mixture.
To eat with pasta, add some purple sprouting broccoli stems to the boiling pasta about 5 minutes before it is done and then the florets a couple of minutes later as they need less time. Serve with a tablespoon of pesto and olive oil stirred through for each person and plenty of extra parmesan cheese grated over.
For the Caesar salad, for each person, bake around a dozen torn chunks of bread tossed in olive oil and a desert spoon of the pesto, for 8-10 minutes in a 200°C oven, until golden. Sprinkle with some grated parmesan and let cool. Make a dressing as follows. Boil an egg for 2 minute only and carefully crack into a mixing bowl (avoiding adding shell), with 6 nice anchovies, juice of half a lemon, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, a tablespoon of pesto, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and some black pepper. Whisk the mixture until the anchovies are broken up and then gradually add in around 100ml of olive oil, until you have a thick-ish, slightly green emulsion. To serve, mix some chilly little gem or cos lettuce leaves with enough dressing to coat and arrange with the croutons, any remaining anchovies and some shaved parmesan. Worth the faff.
