Wild garlic pesto with Orzo

The fine chaps from Blaencamel farm were selling bunches of wild garlic at the market on the weekend. The smell of it always reminds me of walking in summer and I knew it would make a quick and easy pesto.

In a food processor or mini chopper, blend together first a thumb-sized piece of Parmesan and half a pack (50g) of hazelnuts. Add a bunch of wild garlic and enough olive oil to make a smoothish paste. If you do this on the weekend, tea in the week can be ready in minutes. It keeps in the fridge for a week – pour a little layer of oil on top every time you use it and it’ll keep the air out.

I discovered Orzo thanks to the recent Nigellissma series – she does a brilliant ‘risotto’ with it which I had to try (it is amazing). It’s such a quick pasta to use and with fresh pesto stirred through it did become quite risottoesque (in half the time of making a real one). I added some little peas and sweet char-grilled peppers (from a jar) and served it up under a grilled pork chop.

It’s the first time I’ve gone off-piste with pesto and I’ll be trying more variations through the summer I think – just playing about with different herbs and nuts. Thinking parsley and a little lemon juice to go with fish next.