When did our relationship with wild garlic turn sour? Ten years ago, when we began Aniar in Galway, it was the first herb that I could easily identify and its usefulness over the years has made it a staple in our kitchens, where we use it to make oils, mayonnaise, sauces, pickles and, of course, pesto.
Each year we make an Irish pesto with wild garlic, Hegarty’s cheddar, hazelnuts, Newgrange cold-pressed rapeseed oil, and sea salt. For me, it’s the apotheosis of our newfound love of food. It combines all these Irish ingredients to make a readily identifiable food stuff that people can relate to and enjoy.
However, last year I remember seeing the resentment towards wild garlic building on social media. It had turned from a trend to a tyrant; a scourge of our recent gentrification. Just a few days ago, the Guardian published an article about foragers ruining large patches of wild garlic in Cornwall. The headline read: "It's trendy: wild garlic foragers leave bad taste in mouth of Cornish residents." I have noticed this aspect of foraging myself. Large parts of Barna woods are now devoid of wild garlic. The problem, as related by the Cornish residents is big (or at least bigger) businesses arrive, and fill up black bags by aggressively uprooting the wild garlic. This is not the way to go if we want to make sure we have another generation of wild garlic foragers. Rule number one: never take the root. Rule number two: only ever take a third of the growth of whatever you are foraging.
How to make wild garlic pesto pasta
To make your wild garlic pesto a little less garlicky, cut it with flat-leaf parsley. That is, for a 300g batch, use 150g of wild garlic and 150g of flat-leaf parsley. Place in a food processor with 75g of any hard cheese (try a smoked one for an interesting flavour). Blend with 300ml of cold-pressed rapeseed oil (or any extra virgin oil). Season with sea salt. Cook 500g of pasta as per packet instructions. Fold a few spoons of pesto into the drained pasta and finish with some more cheese and toasted hazelnuts.
