Wild Garlic & Tomato Sauce with wild garlic butter bread

Walk through the woods in Spring and you are sure to encounter the scent of wild

garlic on the air! Now is the perfect time to go foraging for this delicious and versatile plant.

Make sure to pick just one or two leaves from each plant, and gather only what you need. Wild garlic takes a long time to grow, so never dig up the roots. It's easy to spot (mainly because you can sniff it out!). The leaves are long, wide and pointed with smooth edges, and they grow on a short stalk from the base of the plant. If you are unsure, have a sniff of a torn leaf and it should have an unmistakable garlicky smell.

My favourite way to use wild garlic is in a simple tomato sauce, which I serve over home-made raviloli, accompanied by crusty bread spread with wild garlic & chive butter. Simple to make and utterly delicious. You could make the sauce with fresh tomatoes, but for a quick sauce I use tinned.

Recipe:

Ingredients

1 onion

A knob of butter

2 tins whole tomatoes

one large handful of wild garlic

A small handful of fresh thyme

Salt & pepper

Method

Finely chop the onion and sauté gently in the butter until soft (about 5 minutes)

Open the tins of tomatoes and use a knife to chop them a little in the tin. I do this instead of using chopped tomatoes, as I like my tomato pieces chunky. Tip the tomatoes into the onions and stir. Allow to simmer gently for around 10 minutes.

Roughly chop the wild garlic and stir it into the tomato mixture along with the chopped herbs.

Season to taste and continue to simmer for another couple of minutes.

You can use this sauce with any type of pasta, or pour it over cooked chicken or fish and serve with rice or potatoes. I love it over home-made ravioli stuffed with a sausage meat and cream cheese mixture.

For the garlic bread I simply added chopped wild garlic & chives to softened butter and spread it on sliced baguette, before warming it in the oven to melt the butter into the bread.

Top Tip:

Any left over sauce and garlic butter can be frozen for future use.