Wild Garlic Pesto Pinwheels

Preserve the flavour of Spring in Wild Garlic Pesto then use it to create the ultimate cheesy garlic bread. Using a soda bread base, these Wild Garlic Pesto Pinwheels are super quick and easy to make and oh so moreish.

If brambles are the gateway drug to foraging, wild garlic is surely the next one down the slippery slope of never being able to go out for a walk without keeping your eyes peeled for free food! It's a sure sign that Spring is in the air when it starts to put in an appearance. It really is one of the most easily identifiable and unmistakable foragable foods. Take a look at the Galloway Wild Food Website for further identification and distribution information if you are unsure. It's smell is so distinctive and the taste, particularly early in the season, very pungent. You may very well smell it in the woods before you spot its long lush leaves. Look for it in semi shaded moist woodland areas, river banks are a good place to start. Later in the season it bursts into bloom with white flowers which are also edible.

Once you've found your 'wild garlic spot' you can return year on year and confidently identify it from the very first shoots of spring growth. My favourite local spot is Dunnottar Woods at Stonehaven where it grows in lush swathes all along the riverbank. Whilst it's in season you can use it in place of garlic, spring onions and chives in a huge variety of dishes. These pinwheels are surely the ultimate cheesy garlic bread. Using a soda bread base they are super quick and easy to make and oh so moreish. Ideal to accompany soup or pasta. Best served warm straight from the oven and sure to keep the vampires at bay!

Wild Garlic Pesto

100g Wild Garlic

75g Pine Nuts - toasted

75g Parmesan Cheese - grated

150ml Scottish Rapeseed Oil

Salt & Pepper

Wash and pat dry the wild garlic leaves, toast the pine nuts in a dry non stick pan and grate the Parmesan. Place everything in a food processor or blender and blitz until it reaches the desired consistency. The quantities given are merely as a guide, feel free to adjust them according to taste.

This recipe will make a larger quantity of pesto than you need for the Wild Garlic Pesto Pinwheels. Store the remainder in a jar in the fridge or freeze in individual ice cube portions. Great stirred through pasta for a quick meal, served on top of lamb chops, steak or fish or mix some into a soup, risotto or mashed potatoes for a fresh garlicky kick.