Wild Garlic (Ramsons, Bear’s Garlic) Pillows
Having bought a serious amount of wild garlic and having made a lot of wild garlic pesto, I had been using it mainly as a toast spread or a thick sauce with grilled chicken, fish and vegetables. Last Saturday I had friends for drinks and absolutely wanted them to taste this aromatic plant. I thought it would be a good idea to use wild garlic pesto in snacks. I didn’t want to make anything time-consuming, so I took the short pastry I had in the fridge and invented the above wild garlic pillows.
As a reminder, a photo of wild garlic (ramsons) leaves:
Wild garlic pillows were excellent, crunchy snacks and even though I was afraid they would come out very garlicky, they had a very moderate ramsons flavour. These snacks are also a good way to use up leftover pastry and egg yolk.
Special equipment:
pastry brush
if you want to obtain fluted, ravioli-like edges, a fluted pastry cutter (wheel) comes handy; otherwise a simple knife is ok
Preparation: 40-50 minutes
Ingredients:
a portion of wild garlic pesto, drained off excess oil (see the recipe here)
short pastry sheet (230g), rolled out
one egg yolk
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
Divide the pastry sheet in two.
Cover one half with 3 mm thick pesto layer.
Cover it with the other half and pat slightly to make sure both sides are sealed.
Cut the pesto-stuffed pastry into 2 cm strips lengthwise and then 2 cm strips widthwise, so that you obtain 2 cm x 2 cm squares.
Place the squares on a baking sheet.
Brush them with the egg yolk and bake until golden (about 20 – 30 minutes).
Serve cooled.
These look so delightful! This wild garlic pesto is still so interesting to me. I need to talk with my local farm gurus and see if there is any equivalent to it around here.
Thanks Clarkie! Maybe you should look for them in the forest? Apparently in the US it’s called “bear paw garlic” or “bear’s garlic” and ramsons must be the UK word (I must add it to my pesto post!) here they sell the seeds: http://davesgarden.com/products/ps/go/1932/ and http://www.horizonherbs.com/product.asp?specific=1708. Hope it helps!
Swietny pomysl! Bardzo mi sie podoba, moze nawet i w ten weekend zrobie, o ile mi czasu wystarczy, bo jak zwykle – planow wiecej niz godzin do dyspozycji 😉
Pozdrawiam serdecznie!
Dzieki! ja zawsze jestem dumna jak wymysle cos nowego , co nie wymaga duzo czasu i pracy 😉 Mam nadzieje, ze sie skusisz (i znajdziesz czas 🙂 )
Oczywiscie zapomnialam zameldowac, ze byly pyszne! (do polowy dodalam tez odrobine koziego serka). Dziekuje za inspiracje 🙂
Oj, strasznie sie ciesze!!!! Od takiej mistrzyni jak Ty to ogromny komplement! Kozi ser to fantastyczny pomysl, ciagle mam w lodowce, wiec moze tez sprobuje dodac.
Regardless of the filling, the pillows themselves are beautiful … golden brown and shiny with the pesto peeking out. I’m sure they were very tasty with drinks and a perfect appetizer to your Moroccan meal.
Ignore the Moroccan meal comment, I am also reading Kitcheninspirations at the same time and I got confused as she was also doing pastry bites. 🙂
No problem 😉
Thank you!