Green garlic

Ail nouveau

What it is

Curing is what makes garlic sharp: weeks of drying concentrate the bulb's sulphur compounds as it loses water and the cloves seal themselves into papery jackets. Pulled in spring before any of that, it is one soft undivided bulb on a juicy stalk, and the whole plant is edible.

In the kitchen

Use the white and the pale green of the stalk, sliced into rounds like a leek — there is nothing to separate, the cloves have not formed yet. Give it a fortnight in the fridge, not a season on the shelf.

Goes with

Olive oil Asparagus Egg Butter Lemon Potato Morel Parsley

Same species

Arleux smoked garlic Banana shallot Black garlic Calçot Cévennes sweet onion Chives

In season alongside

Elephant garlic Pearl onion Acacia honey Pauillac lamb Cauliflower Chioggia beetroot

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