Green Garlic
With
well over 3,000 pounds of garlic expected out of the garden this year, we have
actually started to pick the green garlic for home use and the farmers’ market.
If
you, like me, ran out of your own garlic early in March, and have been
lamenting the lack of garlic in meals since,
whine no more, green garlic is available. It is milder and sweeter than
the fully formed bulb, but hey! It is the perfect, gentle, seasonal,
welcome-back-to-eating-from-the-garden sort of flavour I am looking for.
At
the farmers’ market this weekend, Chef Erin Harris made a delicious green
garlic pesto that I just had to make at home. So, here is the recipe that I
combined with home-made ricotta gnocchi (so easy!), grilled asparagus, and
spinach salad. Yes, green was the theme for the evening.
Green Garlic Pesto
6 green
garlic stems, washed well, trimmed, cut into 2-inch lengths.
1/4 cup
grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup
toasted almonds
1/2 cup
olive oil
Salt and
pepper
1. Pulse garlic in bowl of
food processor until it is chopped up. Add all remaining ingredients. Process
until reasonably smooth.
2. This stores beautifully in
fridge for a few days.
Ricotta Gnocchi
2 cups
smooth ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup grated
Parmesan
Generous
pinch nutmeg
Salt and
pepper
1 ¼ cups all
purpose flour
1. In a medium bowl, combine
the ricotta with the eggs, parmesan, nutmeg, salt and pepper and flour. Stir
everything together . You might need to dump it out on the counter and knead
gently for a minute.
2.
Divide
dough into four pieces. On a lightly
floured surface, using the palms of your hands, roll each piece into a
long rope, about 1 cm around.
3.
Put
a large pot of water on the stove and bring to the boil. Add a couple of teaspoons of salt.
4.
With
a sharp knife, cut the ropes of dough into pieces about 1 cm long. They should
look like puffy little pillows.
5.
Drop
into the boiling salted water. When they rise to the surface they are cooked.
Toss hot gnocchi with green garlic pesto, top with shaved parmesan cheese.
6. Serves four.
