Shopping in the woods

Readers who are lucky enough to have pasta but not pesto should follow their noses this month. British wild garlic is now prolific in many dank woodlands and hedges and strong scent makes it easily identified.

Famed game chef

Tom Godber-ford Moore picks his to produce homemade pesto.

“The type I make with wild garlic is based on the one favoured in

Sicily – pesto Trapanese. As opposed to the more common Genovese version, using basil and pine nuts, the Sicilian version uses almonds and tomatoes. The sweetness of the tomatoes offsets the strength of the wild garlic and the more robust notes of the roasted almonds forms the harmonising alto to wild garlic’s screeching soprano.

As far as its uses go, it works brilliantly with fresh tagliatelle and is also fabulous spread thickly on toasted sourdough and topped with shreds of buffalo mozzarella. It even makes a great accompaniment to lamb chops, especially if they have been well charred on the barbecue.

You will need:

20 cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

Pinch of chilli flakes

50g whole roasted almonds, skin on

100g wild garlic leaves, washed

50g grated parmesan

Juice of 1 lemon

Extra virgin olive oil

First, mix the tomatoes well with the salt, sugar and chilli flakes and leave to macerate for 30 minutes. In the meantime, blitz the almonds in a food processor until well chopped but not dust. Remove and place in a bowl.

Blitz the wild garlic until well chopped and add to the chopped almonds.

Add the tomatoes and all their juices, along with the parmesan and lemon juice, mixing well and adding enough olive oil to come to the required consistency – you are looking for a

‘thick sludge’.