Recipe for wild garlic pesto with parsley
The boys and I went on a trip a few weeks ago; Flyvesandet up in Northern Funen – a huge area with beach, forest, and meadows… truly beautiful… On the way there, we passed a forest that was just brimming with wild garlic on the forest floor. I couldn’t just let my nose pass by, so we pulled over and gathered a good bunch of wild garlic to take home in the car. All the way home, we had that distinctive wild garlic scent in our nostrils, while I pondered over what I could make with them. The most obvious choice was wild garlic pesto, and even though I had been a bit hesitant to make my own pesto before, thinking it seemed complicated, now was the time. I had the most wonderful ingredients right there!
I gave it a try, and it actually wasn’t difficult at all, not at all! And there is just something particularly satisfying about having made your own pesto from scratch, which you can completely customize in terms of flavor and consistency.
I think it tastes better than store-bought pesto, and it’s clear that fresh ingredients have been used — it’s delicious!
I planned to use this pesto in a potato salad and later in the most delicious wild garlic twists, but it could also be used on pizza, in sandwiches, in salads, etc.
Pesto with wild garlic requires you to go out into the forest and find some… They can be found in many forests from March to June and are recognizable by their characteristic garlic scent – the taste is milder than garlic though. But if you’re not up for it, that is, going out and finding them yourself, you can substitute wild garlic with, for example, basil and add a little garlic.
I have seasoned this pesto with a bit of lime juice, as I think it gives a nice fresh zest. And I used sunflower seeds instead of pine nuts. Many pestos are made with pine nuts, but they are quite expensive, and sunflower seeds work just as well. But if you swear by pine nuts, of course, you can use those instead.
No matter what you choose to use in your pesto, it’s easier than you think and the result is both top delicious and very versatile.
Wild Garlic Pesto with Parsley
Equipment
- Kitchen Scale
- Deciliter Measure
- Frying Pan
- Blender (Option 1)
- Mini Choppers (Option 2)
Ingredients
- 100 gram Wild Garlic fresh and rinsed
- 1 handful Broad leaf parsley about 10 grams
- 50 gram Sunflower Seeds
- 50 gram Parmesan grated
- 135-180 gram Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- Lime Juice
Instructions
- Toast the sunflower seeds in a dry pan, just until they lightly brown.
- Put the wild garlic, parsley, sunflower seeds, and Parmesan in a blender or food processor with 1 dl of the oil. Blend everything well together and add more oil as needed to adjust the consistency.
- Season with salt, pepper, and lime juice – your pesto is ready.