Chargrilled Asparagus, Wild Garlic Pesto Linguine with Toasted Almonds (vg)
It’s time to use up the last of the wild garlic. If you’re fortunate enough to still be able to pick fresh leaves and flower heads locally, make some delicious Wild Garlic pesto, (see my previous recipe for Wild Garlic pesto) or simply make a delicious garlicky butter and freeze for later use. Both are wonderful tossed in meat, fish and vegetables. I have several jars in the fridge to use up as well as several garlic and parmesan butter logs tucked away in my freezer.
Recently, I had a practical bread exam as part of my food degree studies based at the School of Artisan Food. I created a hybrid sourdough wild garlic butter loaf. The smell in the room when baking the twelve loaves was incredible. The pungent fresh garlic smell permeated throughout the room and reminded me of walking through the wild garlic meadow, alongside the river at Pelkiln Burn in Scotland, where we picked the leaves and flowers for this pesto recipe.
This simple supper dish was quick and easy to put together, delivering a plate of goodness to the table for the whole family in 20 minutes. If you don’t have wild garlic pesto, you can simple use a supermarket jarred version and add extra garlic. You can make it yourself with fresh basil or spinach as an alternative to wild garlic leaves, too. It’s delicious and I only regret not making more linguine to have cold for lunch the following day.
Happy cooking — N x
Ingredients
Serves: 2-4 | Prep: 5m | Cooking: 20m
2 tbsps wild garlic pesto or shop bought pesto
200g dried pasta linguine or spaghetti
1 tbsp salted butter (omit if catering for a vegan diet) and use olive oil
12 asparagus spears, trimmed
100g grated parmesan or vegetarian/vegan hard cheese
1 whole red chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
1/4 tsp dried chilli flakes
50g almond flakes, toasted
1/4 tsp sea salt
Good grind of coarse black pepper
1/2 lemon, zest only
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Method
Pop a large pan of water on to boil. Next rinse the asparagus and using a potato peeler strip some outer peel from the woody ends of the spears and trim off the tough woody end. Cut in the asparagus pieces in halve.
Once the water has come to the boil, add the salt. Cook the linguine until al dente, still retaining a bite. Whilst the pasta is cooking add the asparagus to a grill pan and char slightly, add the butter (if using) or oil, both dried and fresh chilli flakes to the pan and coat the asparagus. Turn off the heat to prevent asparagus burning.
Once the pasta has cooked reserve a cup of the pasta water, drain the pasta and pop back into the hot pan. On a low heat add the pesto and reserved water to the pasta. Stir in the asparagus, chilli mix, toasted almonds, parmesan, lemon zest and toss to coat everything together. Season to taste with black pepper.
Serve on warmed plates with an extra scattering of grated parmesan, toasted almonds and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Enjoy!
