A Seasonal Welcome
As if cooking wasn’t already creative enough, I’ve decided to add a writing section to my web page. I don’t know if it will interest anyone else, but it will sate my own desire to write. You’ll find all sorts here in the end. Musings of old food memories, tips and tricks, anecdotes, recipes, gardening adventures, kitchen experiments, and maybe even that one time I had a dream about Vienna Sausages (just kidding that didn’t happen… or did it?). What I will most certainly guarantee is that food will in some way come up in every post. After all it is such a pinnacle of our species, it’s steeped in culture, and it often unites us. Also, I just really love food, and spend a lot of my time thinking about it from growing, to harvesting, to production, but to be honest, mostly about what’s for dinner.
I’ve started a garden this year, which is still quite a novelty for me as I’ve not had my own space or time to be growing much in the past. To make up for it, this year (perhaps foolishly, the jury is still out on that one) I’ve planted just about everything I could think of from several varieties of beans to a few types of squash to more types of tomatoes than I probably should have. My main goal though is to cut back on the grocery bill, I mean we’re all feeling the pinch right now, right? It helps that I really love the process as well. I love digging around in the dirt, planting things, finding earthworms, inspecting and admiring how healthy the mycorrhizal makeup of my garden seems to be. Often the first place you’ll find me after I get off work is my greenhouse, checking up on things. Right now is one of the most exciting times as well, with all sorts of things sprouting. It seems like every time I go into my greenhouse something else has popped up. I look forward to sharing my gardening journey and recipes/ideas of what to do using what’s in season with anyone who might want to read about it.
To corroborate my love of seasonality here is a recipe with what’s in season now:
Wild Garlic Pesto with Ricotta Gnocchi
Pesto:
2 Handfuls of Wild Garlic (170g) ◌ 2 Cloves Garlic (peeled) ◌ 30g Toasted Hazelnuts ◌ Juice of 1/2 a Lemon ◌ 100-150ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil ◌ 50g Pecorino ◌ Salt to Taste
Rinse wild garlic. Pulse Wild Garlic, Garlic Cloves, Nuts, and Pecorino together in a food processor or blender. Slowly add olive oil while blending on low setting. Add Salt and Lemon Juice to Taste.
Use in vinaigrettes or as a sauce to toss the Ricotta Gnocchi and Courgette Ribbons (recipe below) in. Also note that if you can’t get ahold of Wild Garlic, Arugula and Watercress are also in season and make nice pestos. Feel free to experiment with other nuts as well, traditional like pine nut or a bit different with pistachios (which are my favourite to make pestos with).
Ricotta Gnocchi:
250g Ricotta ◌ 75g Freshly Grated Parmesan or Pecorino Cheese ◌ 100g Plain Flour ◌ 40g Whole Wheat Flour ◌ 1 Large Egg ◌ 1 Large Egg Yolk ◌ 2-3 Tbsp Freshly Chopped Chives ◌ 1/2 tsp Salt ◌ 1 Bunch Asparagus ◌ 1/2 cup Frozen Peas ◌ 1/2 tsp lemon zest
Add all gnocchi ingredients into a bowl except the flour, mix together until egg is partially mixed into the ricotta. In a small bowl mix the two flours together. Add the flour a little at a time until a sticky very soft dough is formed, if need be add a Tbsp or so more of flour until desired consistency is formed (it shouldn’t be like a batter). Lightly dust a surface with flour and tip dough out on to it. Sprinkle a little flour on top and lightly press into a roughly 2.5cm thick disc. Cut into 8 pieces and roll each piece into a log about 25cm long and 1.5cm in diameter. Cut each log into roughly 1.5 cm pieces. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add the gnocchi (I prefer to do this in batches so that they do not stick together) allowing them to boil for about 30 seconds after they have started floating. Remove from water, and save about 1/3 of a cup of the water. Cut up asparagus any way you fancy, and sautee with peas until just cooked about 3 minutes, adding lemon zest near the end of cooking time. Remove from pan and set aside. Heat a pan over medium heat with a little olive oil and fry the gnocchi until they are golden brown. Add the above pesto sauce and the reserved water continuing to cook until reduced and sauce clings nicely to gnocchi. Top Gnocchi with sauteed asparagus and peas and enjoy!