While this wretched weather might be making us all call into question the arrival of spring, the determined emergence of one of my all time favourite British springtime ingredients is reminding us that yes, April is here, and as cooks, it’s a VERY exciting time. I’m talking about wild garlic, which I just cannot get enough of – and which is the subject of this month’s recipe for Borough Market’s Market Life magazine. Here’s the recipe and what I wrote in the current issue, in the hope of spreading the love.
A forager’s pot of gold
Keep an eye out, and a nostril open at this time of year for a certain pungency in the air – that of wild garlic.
I like to think of it as the garlic breath of the countryside, and it leads to the foraging equivalent of a pot of gold – a patch of glossy, deep green wild garlic that will punctuate your cooking through the spring with a gentle hit of fresh, green garlic. These days you can skip the uncertainty of foraging and head to the market, where you’ll find bags of the stuff ready and waiting, and it’s also been popping into veg boxes and onto the shelves of certain green grocers and health food shops. If you live somewhere that’s not well served by any of the above, try looking online for it, there’s a lot about right now.
Soft, pillowy gnocchi, crisped up in foaming butter
In this recipe the gentle green allium of wild garlic is folded into a soft, pillowy gnocchi and then browned to a crisp in butter, served in warm bowls of lemon-spiked chicken broth, with tender asparagus, the whole lot lifted with soft herbs. Spring in a bowl.”
500g potatoes, skin on
20g Parmesan, plus extra to grate
Fresh nutmeg
100-200g wild garlic (depending how strong you like it)
2 tbsp ricotta
2 egg yolks
150g 00 flour
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
100g asparagus, blanched until tender and chopped
300ml chicken stock
Zest and juice of ½ lemon
Soft herbs such as tarragon, chervil and dill
Heat the oven to 180C fan. Scatter a handful of rock salt onto the bottom of a roasting tray and place the potatoes on top. Prick them with a fork and bake for around an hour, until a skewer slides through without resistance. Allow to cool until you can handle them, then peel and rice into a bowl. Add the parmesan and lightly mix. Season with plenty of salt, pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg.
Place the wild garlic in a sieve and pour a kettle of boiling water over it. Allow to cool for a couple of mins, then squeeze out any excess moisture and blitz in a blender to a puree. Once cool, pour into the potatoes along with the ricotta and egg yolks and sieve in the flour. Mix with your hands lightly to form a dough. On a floured surface, roll the dough, a quarter at a time, into long thin sausages and use a sharp knife to cut it into little gnocchis. Refrigerate for 15 mins, to firm up before cooking.
Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Tip in half the gnocchi into the salted water and boil until they float to the top. Fish out carefully with a spider or slotted spoon onto a plate, then repeat with the remaining gnocchi. Melt a good knob of butter in a frying pan, and pan fry the gnocchi until they are starting to crisp and colour, turning over to cook evenly, for around 3 mins. Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock in a pan with the lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste for seasoning.
Divide the gnocchi between bowls with the blanched asparagus and ladle over the broth. Garnish with herbs and top with more Parmesan and cracked black pepper.