May is the perfect month for a wild garlic recipe. Only in season until July, it can be added to soups, salads, omelettes, frittatas or any dish that is calling for garlic. The tender little leaves don’t keep for long, so pesto is a good way of preserving this distant relative of the chive. I like to mix my greens. The spicy edge of rocket works really well with the heat from the wild garlic and sun dried tomato and rosemary add a Mediterranean touch.
Combing vitamin A rich greens with high quality organic extra virgin olive oil was such a clever idea of the people of Genoa, the place where pesto was born, as the oil helps with the absorption of the vitamin. Vitamin A is important for eye health and vital for cell health in general, so stocking up before the sunny period of the year helps prepare the skin for the brighter days ahead.
Using courgettes and carrots in place of regular pasta bring more spring colours and flavours to your plate. You will just need a sprializer, they are available in most department stores and hardware shops these days. To keep more nutrients in tact, I only ever briefly blanch my courgetti and carottini. It also keeps them ‘al dente’ and saves a lot of time when coming home in the evening. They make an easy and quick work lunch too. And here is what you need:
Ingredients (ideally organic): Serves 2
2 medium sized courgettes
2 small carrots
4 Spears of white or green asparagus
1 tbsp of ghee (15g) or olive oil (15ml)
2 sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
20g goats cheese- crumbled up or cut into small cubes
Sea salt
Pesto:
100g rocket
100g wild garlic
1 small clove of garlic
2 sun dried tomatoes – roughly chopped
50g pan toasted cashew nuts
1 sprig of rosemary- only using the tender leaves
150ml rapeseed oil or extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg to taste
Method:
Start with toasting the cashew nuts in a frying pan, without oil, until golden brown and leave to cool. Next rinse the rocket and wild garlic. Make sure there is no soil or little bugs left on the greens. Gently pat dry with a kitchen towel and place in a food processor. Once the nuts have cooled down, add together with the rest of the ingredients and blend until you get a pesto like texture. Season to taste with freshly ground pepper and nutmeg. Blitz once more, fill the pesto into a sterilised glass jar with a lid and set aside.
If using white asparagus, wash and peel before cutting it into slices. Green asparagus does not need to be peeled, so please just wash, cut into slices and set aside. Next, in a small pot bring water to a boil, add a little sea salt and the asparagus. Turn off the hob and leave the asparagus to sit in the boiling hot water for 4-5 minutes.
In the meantime, wash and spiralise the carrots and courgettes. Place in a sift and once the asparagus is ready, drain it into the sift. Using the cooking water to blanch the courgetti and carrotini leaves them perfectly cooked ‘al dente’. Add a tbsp of ghee or olive oil on top and toss around before serving the vegetable spaghetti and asparagus onto two plates. Add a few tablespoons of pesto and scatter goats cheese and roughly chopped sun dried tomatoes on top. Bon Appetite x.
