orechietti primavera

It's really starting to feel as though the garden is getting back into productivity after the late winter/early spring minimum. The greens taste so full of life and vitamins. To go with this bounty


we made some hand-shaped orechietti. Our neighbours, who visited for dinner helped out (otherwise they weren't going to get fed). The "sauce" was made by sweating some leeks and carrot in a lot of extra virgin olive oil. Each ingredient was added succesively depending on how long it would take to cook. The green garlic, baby broad beans (in shell cut into 1 inch pieces), fennel bulb, shallot flower stems, articoke hearts, shelled broad beans. This was then tossed with the cooked orechietti, chopped flat-leaf parsley, more olive oil and lots of black pepper and cheese. It tasted pretty good.