Recipe: Wild Ramp Pesto

By Erin McKenna Breglia, Landis Gardener

Erin making pesto

Wild ramps are a favorite vegetable we wait for each spring. These mini onion bulbs taste like a cross between an onion and garlic and can be eaten raw or cooked. One of our favorite dishes to make with the above ground greens is a ramp pesto. We harvest the leaves when they are about 6” tall, leaving the bulbs intact underground.

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups (2 handfuls) of fresh ramp greens, rinsed
  • 1/4 cup of organic almonds, walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/2 cup organic extra virgin olive oil
Blanch the ramp greens. To blanch the greens, you will need to set up a pot of boiling water and a bowl of ice water. Boil the greens for 1 minute and then plunge them into the ice bath for one minute. Squeeze out the excess liquid and lay out to dry until time to use them. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the three garlic cloves as much as possible. Add the nuts to the garlic and crush until a paste is created. Chop the ramp greens. Add them and the Parmesan cheese to the garlic/nut paste. Pound, crush, and mix them together, about 10 minutes, to combine. Incorporate the olive oil, a little at a time to fully mix. You can add more to your liking. Use fresh or freeze for up to 6 months.

This pesto goes well with pasta, fish, potatoes, sweet potato, chicken, risotto, bread… the possibilities are endless!


Summer 2022

Volume 40 , Number 2

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