Recipe: Wild Ramp 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!