In his new seasonal food column for Great British Food, influential Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Phil Howard celebrates the green and bright delights of wild garlic
After five long months of winter, the verdant green garlic leaves that pop up all over the country are so very welcome. Cornwall generally sees the first of the aromatic chlorophyll-laced shoots that gradually move north as spring takes hold and cover huge swathes of the countryside. Woodland borders and damp shady environments suit it best and, on a good day of foraging, you can find more garlic leaf than you can use. This is not the norm with foraged produce, so enjoy it while you can!
Garlic leaf first appears in February, is at its peak in March and lasts through to mid-April when the leaves begin to lose the early sweetness and heady fragrance that makes them so special. Flowers follow and these too can be liberally sprinkled over almost any dish wanting a breeze of garlic wafting through it.
Garlic leaf is a powerful reminder of why cooking seasonally is such a rewarding way to run a kitchen. Whilst the mellow tones of winter cooking and root vegetables are delicious and satisfying, we inevitably crave some vitality and freshness as the days grow longer. Welcome Allium Ursinum, or wild garlic as we call it, with its intoxicating aroma and verdancy. Garlic leaf doesn’t pack the flavour punch of its bulb cousin, but it has a wonderfully mellow overtone and green freshness.
We all love garlic - when used well, it can be transformational - but I don’t tend to use the leaves as I would a clove. It is so versatile and can be thrown into anything that would happily be pimped with garlic but, in my opinion, is best made into a pesto where
