RECIPE: Wild garlic tagliatelle with wild garlic pesto, confit baby tomatoes & ricotta.
This is a super cheap dinner, vegetarian friendly and packs a huge punch in flavour. If you’re lucky enough to have wild garlic growing nearby, it’s so nice to be able to pick wild food and oversee it’s journey to the plate. My oldest son doesn’t normally take an interest in cooking, but he loves getting involved with this one ☺️
INGREDIENTS (serves 3)
For the pasta:
• 300g pasta flour
• 3 eggs + 1 extra yolk
• 40g wild garlic
For the pesto:
• 40g wild garlic
• 1/2 lemon
• 25ml olive oil
• 25g parmesan (or alternative hard cheese)
• 50g pine nuts
For the confit tomatoes:
• 250g mixed baby tomatoes
• 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 sprigs thyme
To finish:
• 50g ricotta cheese
• parmesan for grating
METHOD
For the pasta:
• Blend eggs and wild garlic in a food processor until smooth.
• Combine with flour in a bowl, then tip onto a work surface and knead for 10 minutes.
• Cover with cling film and place in the fridge until needed.
• Cut dough into 4 and roll out using a pasta maker, flouring the pasta after each roll, then use the tagliatelle setting. Alternatively use a rolling pin then roll into a sausage shape and cut through the sausage at 1cm intervals.
• Cook for 2-3 minutes in salted boiling water.
For the pesto:
• Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend. You might need to do this in batches. Taste and adjust if a certain flavour is missing.
• Tip into a small bowl, cover with cling film and store in the fridge until needed.
For the tomatoes:
• If you have a vacuum sealer and sous vide, place all ingredients into vacuum bag with salt & pepper.
• Seal bag, then cook in water bath at 60°C for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• If you don’t have a vacuum sealer, cook in the oven in a small dish as above. You might need a little more oil to cover the tomatoes.
To finish:
• Drain water from pasta pan, retaining a little water. Add 1tbsp of the pesto and mix.
• Add pasta to plate, remove tomatoes from oil with a slotted spoon and place on top of pasta.
• Add a good dollop of pesto on top.
• Finish with ricotta and grated parmesan.