Smashed Parmesan crusted new potatoes with wild garlic pesto and lemony white bean puree
Such a yummy combination of things that taste really great together. Wild garlic season is perhaps one of my favourite times of the year.
The delicious wild garlic pesto flavor goes really well with the lemony bean puree.
My friend suze introduced me to smashed potatoes, and i just love them. She made them topped with wild garlic pesto and pine nuts to go with a roast chicken for my birthday meal a few weeks back. She made a lemony yogurt sauce to accompany it too. So the flavour’s here are inspired by that.
The bean puree is based on a favourite from bold bean co.
The are great as a side dish, but its even great on as a meal on its own.
Spring time walks in the woods deliver a pleasing treat at this time of year, the punchy aromas of wild garlic hit you before you even spot the delicious crop, making it easy to find. Wild garlic is one of those ingredients that I look forward to going out to forage for each year and I always make the most of the season.
Armed with a basket or a bag, i love to head off to the woods with the dog to collect handfuls of it, it makes for such a lovely weekend activity.
I find myself picking as much as I can while it’s in season and creating new recipes with it, or just simply chopping it up and adding it into old favourite’s to boost the flavour.
A lot of the wild garlic has started to go to seed now and flower, which looks incredibly pretty but it means the leaves will start to loose their intense green colour and some of their flavour. This is because most of the plants energy is being used to grow the flowers so it can disperse its seeds. The garlic will still be tasty but maybe not as good as it was at the beginning of the season. Try and pick the smallest, greenest leaves if you can.
You can preserve it and make pesto’s, vinegar’s or ferment it. It’s great pureed and made into pasta, or chopped and added to breads and tarts. The whole part of the plant is edible, so I love to use the flowers too.
Smashed Parmesan new potatoes with wild garlic pesto and lemony white bean puree
Course: side or brunch2
servings30
minutes40
minutesCrispy Smashed Parmesan coated new potatoes with wild garlic hazelnut pesto and lemony white bean puree
Serves two (double feed more, there will be more than enough pesto though)
Ingredients
- Wild garlic hazelnut pesto (makes one jar)
100 g of washed wild garlic, thick stalks removed.
50 g Parmesan grated
50 g hazelnuts (skinned and roasted)
Lemon juice to taste (start with 1 tbsp)
Maldon salt
- Lemony white bean puree
1-400 g tin of white beans. (Butter beans or cannelloni beans work well)
2 tbsp brine from the tin (more if needed)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp wild garlic pesto
1-2 tsp salt (depending on how salty the brine liquid is)
Zest of half a lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
- For Parmesan smashed new potatoes
500 g new potatoes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Maldon salt and freshly squeezed black pepper
25 g Parmesan
- To serve
Handful of Roasted Hazelnuts
Wild garlic flowers (optional)
Wild garlic flowers (optional)
Lemon zest
Directions
- To make pesto
- Wash the wild garlic and remove any though stalks. Place in a food processor, blitz until well broken up. Add the Parmesan and process further. Finally add the hazelnuts. When the nuts are added you will want to have your olive oil to hand; turn the machine back on, and add olive oil to your desired consistency.
add salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. You can add a bit of zest too if you like it lemony. - For the lemony white bean puree
- Drain the beans saving 4 tbsp of the brine from the tin.
Add the beans, 2 tbsp of the bean brine, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp pesto, olive oil, salt, pepper and zest into a food processor.
Puree for a few minutes until it’s really smooth (add more brine if needed). Taste and add more lemon juice or seasoning if needed.
Place in fridge until needed.
( you can serve this warm, just make without the lemon juice and use 4 tbsp brine liquid. add the lemon juice and zest once it is warmed in a pan and off the heat, stir in and serve) - For the smashed new potatoes
- Boil the potatoes in a pan of salted water until tender. Approx 12-25 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.
Drain the potatoes and leave in a colander for 5 minutes to steam. - Drizzle some of the oil in a roasting dish, then place the potatoes on spaced apart.
Using a glass of any flat bottomed object you have to hard, press down onto each potato to squash them. Drizzle over a little more olive oil to coat. grate over Parmesan, season with salt and pepper and bake for 35-50 minutes depending on size.of the potatoes until golden and crispy. - To serve
- Spoon the bean puree on to a plate and spread out, top with the potatoes and add some spoonfuls of the pesto. Add some toasted hazelnuts, wild garlic flowers, salt, pepper and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Add some lemon zest then dig in.
Notes
- This can be made with any pesto, but add a small clove of garlic to the bean puree if you are not using wild garlic.
