Step 1: Go into the garden with your beloved and gather cooking greens. Spread them out on the outdoor table and admire them.
On this particular day, our yard offered up broccoli, perennial leeks, Tuscan kale, bok choy, spinach, Continental parsley (of course) and the funny little peas growing in the chook plantings. We also had some radishes (which I washed and ate straight away) and a few self-sown potatoes (which we turned into potato salad with homemade mayonnaise).
Step 2: Wash all the greens and chop them up. Defrost and cut up some of Diana and Ian’s garlic, and count out ten anchovy fillets. Have a little chilli oil on standby.
Step 3: Go to the pantry and choose a packet of fancy pasta. Put a big pot of salted water on the stove, and once it’s at a rolling boil, butta la pasta (throw in the pasta)…
Step 4: In a large wok (like this gorgeous red clay one from Emile Henry), heat up a generous slurp of oil and gently fry all the garlic, anchovies, chopped greens and a little chilli oil (if desired). Mix well, adding water as needed, and let it simmer gently with the lid on, stirring occasionally to stop it burning. Cook until soft and wilted, which should take about as long as the pasta needs to cook.
Step 5: Once the pasta is al dente, ladle a scoop of the cooking liquid into the garden sauce to loosen it, then stir the drained pasta into the sauce. Turn it over to coat evenly, drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil, and serve with cracked pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy!
Note: this recipe is an adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s Farfalle with Broccoli, Anchovies and Chilli (The Return of the Naked Chef), and it really does work best if there’s some broccoli in the mix of greens. It’s also the perfect recipe for using up all the little broccoli shoots that sprout late in the season after the main head has been harvested!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 