I like to think I am a pretty adaptable person. I have been told before that it's almost like there are multiple versions of myself for every context. There's "City James", the posh London boy that so many have grown to love and/or hate. "Country James", the James that wears a flat-cap and picks apples in the rurals. Then there's "Switzerland James". Is he a more practical James? A more in-tune with nature James? More neutral? One thing I can say is that City James would never eat something he found outside on the ground. But Switzerland James, oh boy are you in for an adventure.
Since moving to this new land, I have been awed by its natural bounty. Local produce harvested from robust ecosystems, woodlands practically bursting with foragables. I wanted to get in on the action, and so I invite you to journey with me as I forage and make (under heavy supervision from someone who knows what they are doing) wild garlic pesto, picked from the local forests.
The first step is the most important, and also the hardest. Find yourself some wild garlic. You want damp, shady woodlands, ideally close to a source of water. It looks a little something like this:
There it is, wild garlic, also known as ramsons. You'll find it in thick carpets, huge amounts in one area. The first thing to notice is that this is not garlic like the bulbs you find in the supermarket. While ramsons is is a member of the same Allium genus as your typical garlic, the bulbs are underground and not typically eaten. Instead, it's the broad green leaves we're after.
But, be careful! Wild garlic leaves can easily be mistaken for similar looking, but toxic, vegetation. Two good tips for being safe: 1) sniff for that garlicky smell. No garlicky smell, no garlic; 2) look at the stems, if it's a single stem, it's safe. If one stem branches into several, then it's not.
So you've identified a plant which is definitely ramsons and definitely not poisonous. Next we need to harvest it. Do so by breaking off the leaves. Be careful not to pull up the roots, that way the ramsons will grow back after picking. As to the amount, it depends on how much pesto you wish to make, but I would say pick more than you expect you will need. You'll be surprised by how little pesto you get for the volume of leaves picked.
On to the kitchen. Wash the ramsons thoroughly in a collander with cold water. You may also want to wash or soak in bicarbonate of soda to ensure that everything is clean (you never know where there may have been foxes about).
While soaking, toast some pine nuts in a dry pan until golden brown. For two cups of leaves, you want about a half cup of pine nuts. Watch these like a hawk and stir. Pine nuts can go from brown to burnt very quickly.
Once that's all done, add the pine nuts to the ramsons, along with a quarter teaspoon of salt and a whole heap of freshly grated parmesan. However much cheese you think you need, it's more. At least a half cup. Finally, add a quarter cup of olive oil.
With your ingredients combined, all that is left is to blitz the heck out of it with a blender. Your standard kitchen blender will do, but if you really like to get your hands dirty, you'll want to use a hand blender. Blend to your preferred consistency, and then jar that sucker up (pictured above).
Congratulatons, you've just made some hand-picked wild garlic pesto. Easy, right? Pour some of that bad boy out on a dish of pasta and enjoy the most fresh, fragrant, garlicky pesto you've ever eaten. Or get creative. Make some pesto bread, mix with butter for some wild garlic butter. Embrace the garlicky goodness.
