Ingredients

500 g mixed greens (I used kale, purple sprouting broccoli, rhubarb chard and spinach)

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

40 g vegetarian Parmesan, grated

100 ml wild garlic oil (see recipe here)

for the wild garlic pasta

325 g “00” pasta flour

3 free range organic eggs

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

75 g wild garlic leaves

40 g semolina or rice flour, for dusting

Method

1. First make the pasta. Wash and drain the wild garlic leaves. Bring a pan of water to the boil and gently add the garlic leaves and stir. After two minutes the leaves will have wilted. Drain them through a colander and then plunge the leaves into a bowl of ice cold water to arrest the cooking process. Drain the leaves again, squeeze out as much excess water as you can, then chop the leaves very finely.

2. Place the flour, chopped wild garlic leaves, eggs and olive oil into a bowl and mix to a smooth, speckled dough. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes, until it is firm but slightly elastic in texture, like a large lump of playdough. Be patient, it will take a little time for the mixture to all come together. If necessary add a tiny amount more olive oil but err on the side of caution or you will end up with pasta that will stick when you roll it. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Remove the pasta dough from the fridge. Divide into eight and roll out each piece into a long, thin rectangle. Using a pasta roller, feed the pasta dough through the machine at its thickest setting (setting number “9” on most machines). Repeat this several times, gradually reducing the setting until you can put it through on the thinnest setting and the pasta sheet has a smooth sheen. Now feed the sheets of pasta carefully through the tagliatelle shape cutter. Carefully gather the tagliatelle strands and place them on a baking tray along with the semolina or rice flour and toss to ensure the tagliatelle strands don’t stick together.

4. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil Add the pasta. After a minute add any of the hardier greens, such as kale and broccoli. After a further two minutes add the more fragile greens such as spinach and chard. Cook for one more minute then drain the pasta and greens in a colander. Return them to the pan, add a couple of tablespoons of the wild garlic oil and stir through.

5. To serve, put a generous mound of the pasta and wilted greens on each plate. Drizzle lightly with more wild garlic oil and finish off with grated Parmesan. http://circusgardener.com