Wild Garlic Pesto

Since you're eating seasonally and thinking about spring, this is the one recipe worth learning right now. Wild garlic grows everywhere in Ireland for about six weeks. Use it or lose it.

 This is not a complicated recipe. It's the simplest possible version because wild garlic is loud enough to speak for itself.

 Pick a good handful of wild garlic leaves. Just the leaves, not the bulbs. If you pull up the bulb, it won't grow back next year and the plant will die out. Wash them gently and pat dry.

Roughly chop them. Put them in a food processor or blender with:

50g wild garlic leaves (picked and washed)

50g pine nuts (toasted lightly in a dry pan for a minute to release flavour)

50g grated Parmesan cheese

100ml good olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Blitz until you have a thick, chunky paste. That's it. Don't overblitz. You want texture, not a purée.

Taste it. Add more lemon if you want brightness. More salt if you want punch. More olive oil if it's too thick.

 Use it on pasta. Stir it into soup. Dollop it onto fish. Spread it on toast. This pesto is designed to make everything it touches taste like spring.

 It lasts two weeks in the fridge in a jar with a layer of olive oil on top. You can also freeze it.

It All Begins (Again) Here:

My son has grown up watching flowers bring people joy. He has learned to be gentle with customers. To listen when someone just wants to tell you their story. To know that sometimes a person ordering flowers is carrying something a grief, a celebration, a love they do not quite know how to express and that your job is to hold that with care.

I could not be more proud of him if I tried.