Wild Garlic – a seasonal delight
If you have the right place for it, our native Wild Garlic or Ransomes (Allium ursinum) is a lovely plant to include in the garden. It has attractive fresh green leaves in Spring, and beautiful starry white flowers followed by attractive seedheads before all dying down. In large quantities, such as growing wild in woodlands, it can fill the air with the smell of garlic, but even that is arguably a fresher garlic smell than the usual cooking garlic and I rather like it. It does seed and colonise well in its favoured dappled light conditions, which could be a good or a bad thing in the garden!
The other fantastic thing about it of course is the taste – my favourite recipe using it and another seasonal gem, Asparagus, is Wild Garlic & Asparagus Carbonara:
Handful of wild garlic leaves (approx 30g)
200g asparagus
1 egg
4 tbsp double cream
50g cheddar + more to serve
1 lemon
200g spaghetti
Mix egg, cream and grated cheese together. Add the wild garlic torn or cut into pieces. Zest in the lemon rind and squeeze in half the lemon juice. Add black pepper and mix, then set aside.
Cook the spaghetti and when it’s got about 6 minutes left add the Asparagus cut into thirds (after snapping off the woody ends) to the spaghetti pan.
When it’s cooked, drain the spaghetti and asparagus, leaving a bit of cooking water. Add the egg and garlic mix stirring it all through. Serve with more grated cheddar and enjoy!
Categorised in: Plant of the moment
This post was written by Christine Whatley on May 15, 2020 10:11 am
