Wild Garlic Bärlauch Pesto

Tis the season to be stinking of wild garlic! Ramsons! Bärlauch! Now is the time to go forth and forage, bring home bunches of this pungent Springtime allium and whizz it mercilessly into glorious green pesto – for adorning your pasta, cheese sandwich, potatoes,  pizza, what have you.

I picked up this organic wild garlic at the Maybachufer market. I also found some organic wild garlic in Netto, so check your local supermarket. Jonathan from Grünewald foraging has begun his foraging outings, so check in for his updates too.

If you have a jar that your blender fits into, use that to cut down on the washing up, hehe.

You need:

A bunch of wild garlic, chopped

Handful or two parsley, chopped

150 ml olive oil

3 tablespoons sunflower seeds, toasted

3-4 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped

Optional: crumble of cheddar/parmesan

The only extra step I take is to toast off the sunflower seeds in a dry pan first, at medium heat for a few minutes. Shake the pan so they don’t burn, they’ll start popping and turn a lovely golden brown.

Whizz everything together in your blender -until it becomes a pesto-like paste. Smather onto everything and enjoy it as long as it lasts – wild garlic season is short-lived, it might stretch until end of May.

Pasta with wild garlic pesto and avocado

To keep it vegan, omit the cheese.

Wild garlic is VERY GARLICKY. Especially if you use the whole stalk – if you haven’t before, have a taste of the end of the stalk. It’s spicy! I forgot how much of a kick it has, and added a clove of garlic to my first batch. I am a garlic fiend, but this was too much, even for me. So, no need to add any further garlic to this really.

How cute, after checking the wiki page I discovered the literal translation of the German name – Bear’s garlic – is because actual bears also dig wild garlic (literally).

Photography – Elizabeth Rushe