Bear’s garlic is known as alliuym ursinum, whose leaves are similar to ramps (allium tricoccum), but there are no bulbs on the ends. (I’ve seen it called ramson, and it’s often referred to as wild garlic, in English as well.)
You can use fettucini-shaped pasta if you have a pasta cutter attachment, or are buying fresh pasta. Gnocchi would work well, too.I shaved a bit of ricotta salata (dried ricotta), a mild Italian cheese that my local Italian restaurant has been selling me, with an agreeable tang that doesn’t interfere with other flavors, over each serving. But I didn’t snap a picture of them as it was getting dark – and I was hungry! So feel free to do so, if you can get your hands on some.
Ingredients:
- 6 to 8 ounces (170g to 225g) wild garlic, or ramps
- 3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for finishing the pasta
- 1 1/4 pounds (565g) fresh pasta
- sea salt
- fresh ground black pepper
Instructions:
1. Wash and dry the leaves of wild garlic (or ramps). Coarsely chop the leaves. You should have 1 1/2 to 2 cups, loosely packed. (If using ramps, trim off the thicker bulbs before chopping the leaves, and sauté them in the pan first, since they’ll take a bit longer to cook through than the leaves, in step #4.)
2. Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil.
3. Heat the oil in a large skillet. When hot, add the wild garlic, seasoning with salt and pepper.
4. Meanwhile, drop the pasta in the boiling water. While the pasta is cooking, stir the garlic in the pan until it’s wilted and soft.
5. When the pasta is done, drain well then toss in the skillet with the garlic.
6. Divide the pasta among 4 bowls and drizzle each with additional olive oil and a sprinkle of salt, if desired.
Do you have recipes that DON’T include stuff that you must buy at a fancy food store? Where can you buy garlic leaves??
Your stuff really SOUNDS good, but that’s about as far as I can get……