Spring took rather a long time to arrive this year. Consequently, I’m planning to go all out on green veg at every opportunity from here on in. Five shades of green in just one dish (or six, if you include the grassy-green olive oil)? This is just me and my cravings starting out and trusting that everyone else is as ready as I am for something lighter, not to mention light-filled. Serve everything with a green salad, drink green lime and soda, and say no to grey!
Lemon sole with spring vegetable agrodolce
Agrodolce is a sticky, sweet-sour Italian sauce/condiment that’s often piled into meat or cheese sandwiches, or used as a topping for a whole range of dishes. The sweetness (or dolce) typically comes from honey or dried fruit, while the sour element (or agro) comes from vinegar. Play around with the type of vinegar you use, if you like: red-wine vinegar works as well as white, balsamic makes it sweeter, while cider vinegar makes it fruitier, for example. My take is light on the sugar, though, so the natural sweetness of the spring vegetables can sing out.
Prep 10 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 2 as a main
65ml olive oil
1 brown onion, peeled and finely sliced (180g)
Fine sea salt and black pepper
100ml white-wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tbsp capers, drained
6 asparagus spears, stalks thinly sliced, tips left whole (100g)
4 artichoke hearts, from a tin or jar, drained and finely sliced (100g)
2 tbsp pine nuts
2 skin-on lemon sole fillets, or 4 small sea bass fillets (300g)
60g peas (fresh or frozen and defrosted), lightly crushed
5g (2½ tbsp) roughly chopped mint leaves
Put the oil, onion and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt in a large frying pan for which you have a lid, then set it on a medium-high heat. Cook for eight minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and lightly golden. Add the vinegar, sugar and capers, and cook for another five minutes, until the liquid in the pan has reduced to about three tablespoonfuls.
Add the asparagus, artichokes, pine nuts and a good grind of pepper to the pan, and cook for two minutes. Lay the fish fillets skin side up on top, cover the pan again and take off the heat. Set aside for five minutes, during which time the fish will steam and cook gently.
Meanwhile, put the peas and mint in a small bowl. Once the fish is just cooked, tilt the pan, transfer two tablespoons of the oil and a tablespoon of the vegetables to the pea bowl, and stir to combine.
To serve, carefully peel the skin off the fish – use your fingers or gently coax it away with a flat knife – and discard. Spoon the pea mixture on top and serve straight from the pan.
Orecchiette with broccoli, anchovy and cumin
If I ever had a favourite spring pasta, it would be this one. It’s adaptable, too, so you can swap the broccolini for any other crunchy spring vegetables that you have to hand, such as peas or asparagus. To make it vegetarian, swap the anchovy for miso and use a hard, parmesan-like vegetarian-friendly cheese instead.
Prep 15 min
Cook 20 min
Serves 4
Fine sea salt and black pepper
300g dried orecchiette, or similar-sized pasta such as fusilli or conchigliette
90ml olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
6 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped, or 2-3 tbsp white miso paste, or to taste
Zest and juice of ½ lemon
1 tsp ground cumin
370g jarred chickpeas, drained (there’s no need to rinse them, though)
1 tsp aleppo chilli powder
200g Tenderstem broccoli, or similar, cut on the diagonal into 2½cm lengths
30g parmesan, or vegetarian alternative, finely grated
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and set the timer to nine minutes.
While the pasta is cooking, make the sauce. Pour all the oil into a large saute pan and put it on a medium heat. Add the garlic, fry, stirring, for a minute, then stir in the anchovies, lemon zest and cumin, and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the chickpeas, chilli and a good grind of black pepper, mix well, then take off the heat.
When the timer sounds, drop the broccoli into the pasta pot and cook for three minutes. Reserve 100ml of the cooking water, then drain the pasta and broccoli, and add them to the chickpea pan. Scatter over 20g grated parmesan, return the pan to the heat and toss and stir vigorously for a minute, so the sauce emulsifies and coats the pasta.
Spoon into four shallow bowls, add a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch more aleppo chilli, if you like, top with the remaining parmesan and serve.
Yotam Ottolenghi has been inspiring home cooks with Guardian recipes since 2006. Now he and his team are here to help with all your kitchen questions in a new weekly column. Whether it’s about skills, kit or ingredients, they’re the experts with the answers. Ask away …
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