This is a vegetarian dish for Valentine’s day. It’s based on the frugal cookery of post-war Italy, with hazelnuts substituted for the stale breadcrumbs that would have been used back then. Don’t let the simple origins of the dish fool you; this main course is packed with flavour. The linguine here is made fresh, which gives you even more flavour and makes this a breeze to cook. Cooking the garlic is the longest process in this recipe. The garlic and the toasted hazelnuts, however, can be prepared the day before.
Prep time 20 minutes/Cook time 40 minutes/serves 2
Ingredients:
1 garlic bulb
A drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil (plus extra for frying)
Handful blanched hazelnuts
60g (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
Pinch saffron threads, soaked in 1 tbsp hot water for 10 minutes
Juice of ½-1 lemon
250g (1/2 lb) fresh linguine (or whichever fresh long pasta you can buy)
100g (3 ½ oz) fresh basil, leaves finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh dill, leaves finely chopped
3 tbsp fresh chives, snipped
Pecorino cheese for grating
Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 200°C (180°C fan/400°F/gas mark 6).
When the oven is hot, rub the garlic bulb with oil and wrap in foil, then roast for 40 minutes or until completely soft. Scatter the hazelnuts on a baking tray and toast in the oven for the last 6-8 minutes of the garlic cooking time. Remove both and set aside to cool.
When the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze out the soft flesh from each clove into a small bowl. (It may look like a lot of garlic for two people, but note that baked garlic has a very mellow flavour.) Coarsely chop the hazelnuts.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan with a glug of oil (to prevent it from burning) then, when the butter is foaming, add the garlic and the saffron (with its soaking water). Stir to combine, then cook over a very low heat to allow the flavours to infuse. Turn the heat up to brown the butter ever so slightly, then take off the heat and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
Cook the pasta in the boiling water for 2-3 minutes until al dente (with bite), then use tongs to transfer it to the butter pan – you want to bring a little of the cooking water with the pasta, so don’t drain in a colander.
Put the frying pan back over gentle heat and stir to coat the pasta in the butter. Add the herbs and season generously with salt and freshly-ground black pepper, then taste and add the remainder of the lemon juice if you want to.
Divide between two warmed bowls, scatter over the hazelnuts and serve sprinkled with grated pecorino.
