Wild garlic and walnut pesto

Fresh pesto is always so much more delicious than a shop-bought one. You can play around with the ingredients in this recipe – replace some of the wild garlic with fresh parsley or try 50/50 walnut/extra virgin oil.

Toss this into hot pasta, swirl it into a vegetable soup, use on bruschetta or serve with steamed seasonal English asparagus.

50g walnuts

75g wild garlic leaves and stems, washed and roughly chopped

35g parmesan (or other hard, mature cheese), finely grated

Finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus a good squeeze of lemon juice

100-150ml extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Lightly toast the walnuts in a frying pan or medium hot oven until they are beginning to brown and you can smell a nutty aroma. Then, when the nuts have cooled, put the toasted nuts in a food processor, along with the wild garlic, cheese and lemon zest. Blitz and with the motor running, slowly add the oil until you have a thick, sloppy purée. Add a squeeze of lemon and season to taste. This pesto will keep in a jar in the fridge for a few days.