Recipe and image by Kathy Paterson
A salad to show off spring vegetables at their best along with roasting intensifying their flavour.
For those gardeners out there growing broad beans, add a few blanched broad beans for extra goodness and texture.
Serves 4
Pesto
50g local walnuts, toasted
1 shallot, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 anchovies in oil
2 large handfuls (50g) flat leaf parsley leaves
1 large handful (20g) basil leaves
1 large handful (20g) mint leaves
3–4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
juice of ½ lemon or more if needed
Asparagus and Eggplant
1 medium eggplant, trimmed
16–20 asparagus spears, woody ends trimmed
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
250g chip cherry tomatoes, halved
a few fresh basil leaves, torn if large
½ lemon, cut into wedges
Heat the oven to 220°C. Line 2 large shallow roasting trays with baking paper.
To make the pesto, put the walnuts in a food processor and coarsely chop. Add the shallot and garlic and process once or twice. Add the anchovies and herbs and process until the pesto has a coarse texture. Drizzle in the olive oil and lemon juice and process. Taste, adding salt to season and extra lemon juice if needed, or thin with a little cold water. Put into a small bowl, cover and keep in the fridge until ready to use.
Cut the eggplant into 2.5cm cubes and put into a tray. Drizzle with 3 tbsp oil and season with ½ tsp salt. Use your hands to mix together to coat the cubes evenly in oil. Or you could do this in a bowl and toss with a wooden spoon then tip into the tray.
Put into the oven and roast for 30 minutes until meltingly tender and golden. About 5 minutes before the end of cooking, scatter in the cherry tomatoes.
Put the asparagus into a tray in a single layer. Drizzle with the remaining oil then again use your hands to mix together to coat the spears evenly in oil.
Put into the oven on a high shelf and roast for 6–7 minutes until just tender. Remove from the oven and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Cut spears in half, if wished.
To serve, toss together the eggplant, tomatoes and asparagus and scatter onto a large plate. Top with extra basil leaves.
Serve dolloped with the pesto or serve pesto separately, in a small bowl.
Tip – Scatter salad with fresh cheese such as burrata, stracciatella, stracchino or ricotta.
