Across Yorkshire in Spring many woods will be pungent with wild garlic – or to use its old name ‘ramsons’ from the Old English ‘hrmsa’.
You’ll smell it before you see it and the leaves make a wonderful addition to salads and soups. You can also make a lovely paste with them.
This recipe makes for a medium-sized jam jar’s worth and is great mixed with mashed potato, or just spread on fresh, crusty bread. It has changed with the times, and Parmesan cheese works best with this now.
However, before you start collecting wild garlic leaves make sure you have the land-owners permission. They might be wild, but not as wild as the Yorkshire land-owner whose property you trespass on! Just ask him or her first.
Ingredients
- 4 oz (113 g) washed wild garlic leaves
- 2 0z (55 g) grated Parmesan cheese (other tangy cheese would have been used in the past, but Parmesan works best with this)
- 2 oz (55 g) pine nuts (or, more traditionally, sunflower seeds)
- Quarter-teaspoon (1/4) salt
- Quarter-teaspoon (1/4) pepper
- Squirt of lemon juice
- 100 ml olive oil
Method
- Wash and dry the leaves thoroughly
- Using a pestle and mortar (or food processor!) grind the leaves and nuts/seeds separately
- Then combine with the other ingredients and mix to a paste
- Put it in a jam jar
- It keeps for 2 weeks in a refrigerator.
