Purple Sprouting Broccoli and wild garlic pasta
Ingredients | Serves 2 | Cook 30 Mins
- 100g wild garlic leaves (thoroughly washed)
- 40g lightly toasted nuts (mixture of pine nuts and cashews works really well)
- 100ml olive oil (or less if you want a more firm pesto base)
- 100g pasta per person
- 100g purple sprouting broccoli (could be substituted for cauliflower in other seasons)
- Handful of other greens (kale, spinach, frozen peas) – optional
- Squeeze lemon juice
- 2 eggs (skip if want to make it vegan)
Method
- First make the wild garlic pesto. Thoroughly wash the garlic leaves and roughly chop. Lightly toast the nuts til golden brown. Put garlic and nuts in a food blender and blitz until smooth. Pour in the olive oil and blitz to combine.
- Put the pasta on to boil (save a few ladles of pasta water for the next step).
- Cut any larger heads of purple sprouting broccoli in half length ways down the stem. Heat a frying pan with olive oil/butter on medium heat and add the broccoli and other greens if you have some. Add 2 ladles of the cooked pasta water and sauté for a few minutes. Once the liquid has reduced slightly, add a squeeze of lemon and the wild garlic pesto to the frying pan and stir in.
- Drain the pasta and allow to cool slightly in the pan. Beat 2 eggs in a bowl and stir into the pasta to make a silky sauce (if the pasta is too hot, the egg will scramble rather than create a carbonara style sauce). Skip this step if you want the meal to be vegan, and glug some olive oil over the pasta instead.
- Tip the broccoli mix into the pasta pan and mix together.
- Serve with parmesan/vegan hard cheese and a side of winter salad leaves or microgreens piled on top. The taste of spring!
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Cultivate Cooperative is a local food organisation based in Newtown, mid-Wales where Wild Garlic grows all across the town lining the River Severn and speckled through the woods. Cultivate runs a local food Deli, seasonal veg box scheme, a community garden, allotments and community kitchen. They have been going for nearly 10 years, focusing on strengthening the local food system.
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