Nuts about nuts

Cobnuts - a rather forgotten little nut which seems to be seeing a bit of a revival at the moment. I was delighted to find them for sale at a London farmers’ market recently, and bought a large bag of them. The Cobnut is a cultivar of the wild hazelnut with longer, more slender shells and a sweet, delicate flavour.

Originally domesticated in the 16^th century, the nut was referred to as the Filbert, and as well as being enjoyed as an autumnal treat which stored quite well through until Christmas, was used by children to play a form of “conkers”, with the winning nut being crowned “the cob”.

Filberts were popular right though until the green revolution of the 1930s, when agriculture intensified, and local and traditional crops and were ditched in favour of modern, vigorous and high-yielding varieties of crops dependent on chemical fertilizers et al.

Sadly, the Cobnut plantations, or “plats” as they are locally known were cut down, dug up and almost lost forever.  In the early 1900s, there were over 7000acres of Cobnut plats in England. This had fallen to just over 700acres by 1950, and then down to 250acres in the 1990s.

Most of these plats were grown in Kent, traditionally the garden of England due to its proximity to London for the main markets.

My nuts were golden, so they had been off the trees for a few weeks. Fresh off the tree, the nuts are green, tender and milky, but as the husks turn golden, the nut begins to dry a little, with a richer, sweeter flavour. I have been eating most of them straight from the shell, but couldn’t resist cooking with a few. A pesto made using the Cobnuts in place of the usual pine kernels, and Berkswell in place of Pecorino or Parmiggiano was especially successful.

Cobnut Pesto

Here is how I made my pretty Enlish pesto - but do adjust quantities to personal taste. 

• Really large handful basil leaves
• 140g Berkswell, finely grated (other English sheeps cheeses to consider; Spenwood, Fosseway Fleece)
• 100g shelled cobnuts
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• Olive oil and rapeseed oil (I used approx 50:50 ratio)

Place the nuts and garlic in a large pestle and morter, and pound until they are well broken. Gradually add the basil, continually pounding the break the leaves and bind them into a paste with the nuts. Once all the basil has been added, and is well broken down into a paste, add the cheese and a little oil in order to loosen the paste. Pound well until the cheese is well combined into the mixture. Slowly add the oils, pounding the mixture all the time, until you have the thicken you want.

Season if need be - I added a little salt but no pepper, and use over the next few days.

The pesto will keep for around a week, provided it has oil covering it, but will begin the loose its fragrance. I made this in a rough granite pestle and mortar, but have also made plenty of pesto in a food processor. I did not toast the nuts prior to making the pesto as I wanted to retain as much of there special creamy, fresh quality as possible.

Hopefully this delicious nut will continue to grow in popularity and new plats will be planted across Kent in the future. I am certainly thinking of planting a few Cobnut trees here in south Warwickshire.