Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) is another super-invasive plant in our area along the east coast. The whole plant is edible, the leaves, flower stalks, flowers, roots, and seeds that are produced in massive quantities. Eating this invader can be done for a good portion of the year, and the blanched leaves store well in the freezer. The flavor overall is garlicky, with a bit of a mustard bite that some people might find bitter. We like the second year's triangular leaves better than the oval, scalloped leaves of the first year's basal rosette, they tend to be more tender and less harsh. We like to pair the pungency of this wild edible with earthy flavors like mushrooms, plus rich textures like cheese in recipes, while still adding a good quantity of garlic mustard. This recipe is mostly about making a filling. You can fill wontons or pasta dough for ravioli, or even use it to stuff some puff pastry triangles or bread. We used some wild hen-of-the-woods maitake mushrooms, because that is what we had in the freezer, but grocery store mushrooms will work fine.
Garlic Mustard and Cheese Ravioli Filling makes about 2 cups
1 T olive oil
1 c. chopped ramps or onions
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 c. chopped maitake mushrooms, or chopped shiitake mushrooms
2 1/2 c. garlic mustard leaves, roughly chopped
4 T farmer's cheese, or drained ricotta
1 T sour cream
1 tsp salt
1. Sautee chopped ramps or onion in the olive oil over medium heat until transluscent, 4 minutes. Add garlic and chopped mushrooms, cook until the mushrooms release their juices and it evaporates, about 5 more minutes.
2. Toss in 2 cups of the garlic mustard leaves and cover the pan, cook 2 more minutes to wilt the leaves. Remove from the heat and allow the mixture to cool.
3. Put the cooked onion, mushroom and garlic mustard mixture into a food processor, and pulse a few times to mix. Add the remaining 1/2 cup of raw garlic mustard leaves, the farmer's cheese, sour cream and salt, and continue to pulse until the mixture is finely chopped. Taste and adjust salt.
4. Use the filling to fill ravioli, wonton wrappers, or as a spread.
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| First-year basal rosette |
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| Second year leaves and flower stalks |
9 comments:
Could you please explain the blanching process? I am interested in using this plant more. Thanks!
Awesome idea! I can not wait to try it out we got to come up with a name for using evasive that fits the idea.
Thanks for sharing :-)
When we blanche greens, it means to cook them in boiling water for about 20 seconds, then remove them and quickly drop them in some ice water to stop the cooking process. This is done to reduce the volume of greens like nettles or garlic mustard so they can be frozen. They are barely cooked, just wilted slightly. Once the greens are cool in the ice water, we then squeeze out the extra water and pack them into freezer bags to use at a later time.
I am here because I love raviolis. I always order the raviolis at restaurants or bistros. Glaze is a nice touch.
It took me only 31 years to figure out the obvious way to eliminate the bitterness of garlic mustard's basal leaves in early spring, before the caudal (stem) leaves become available: Combine them with young lesser celandine leaves that have been parboiled for two minutes in salted water, and drained. Their blandness totally removes the former's bitterness!
I am making the ravioli with a modified version of a garlic mustard pesto recipe with added dried tomatoes and ricotta instead of parmesan -- works nicely, but I like the idea of mushrooms too. BTW, Steve adds lesser celandine but for those of us with none on hand, parsley works well too as a mild green to balance the bitterness.
Love this - looks delicious. A great combination of flavours.
With a large family, I have always tended to steer away from things that needed several stages to make and cook..... but after seeing your recipe and remembering that there are only a few of our children at home now, I have a feeling that we will be having this tonight!
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