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Rocket pasta and pesto with shaved fennel and rocket salad
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- pinch saffron strands
- 2 large organic eggs
- 200g 00 Italian pasta flour, plus extra for dusting
- 10g parmesan, finely grated
- 48 small wild rocket leaves, thick stalks removed
For the pesto
- 50g peppery wild rocket
- 20g lightly toasted hazelnuts, roughly crushed with the back of a knife
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 90ml cold-pressed rapeseed oil, plus extra to seal
- 15g parmesan, finely grated
For the salad
- 1 fat fennel bulb, plus any fronds from the top
- 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp sea salt crystals
- a handful of wild rocket, with flower (if available)
Method
Crush the saffron in a pestle and mortar, add the eggs and mix well. Put the flour and parmesan in a food processor and add the egg mixture and pulse together until the mixture forms clumps. Turn onto a work surface and knead until smooth. Wrap in cling film and chill for about 2 hours or overnight.
To make the pesto, put all the ingredients in a processor and whizz together to a fine texture. Put in a bowl and spoon over some extra oil to seal the surface to prevent it loosing the bright green colour.
Divide the dough into four and use a pasta machine to roll it into thin sheets. Pass a piece at a time through the widest setting at least three times, then gradually narrow the setting each time you pass it through the rollers until you have thin pliable sheets of pasta.
Lay the rocket leaves on one sheet of pasta at 2.5cm intervals and place another sheet on top to sandwich the leaves. Roll through the machine on a medium setting. Repeat with remaining sheets. Cut into random rectangular shapes with a pasta wheel or a knife. You can use right away or freeze on trays and cook from frozen.
Half an hour before serving, thinly slice the fennel using a mandolin or a good vegetable peeler. Lay the slices in a bowl and mix the salt, sugar and vinegar together with 1tbsp of water and spoon over the fennel. Just before serving, drain the fennel and toss with the rocket leaves and flowers.
Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes until al dente. Serve at once with the pesto and rocket and fennel salad.
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