Wild garlic pasta, duck eggs and local food in the Lakes

Sorry that I’ve gone a bit quiet recently – I was away in the lovely Lake District. Normal service will now resume.

I had a few exciting and inspirational food experiences while I was away. I love London and its food scene, but there are definitely some things you miss out on in a big city. We saw so many farms producing top-quality meat in particular but also vegetables, eggs and dairy produce, sometimes selling direct to the public too. There was the pub with its own vegetable garden supplying the kitchen. Nothing remarkable there you might think – but they also rear their own pigs, ducks and chickens – in fact all their meat, including the game, comes from their estate. Oh, and they make their own beer too. This place, the Brown Horse in Winster, near Windermere, might be exceptional, but even more run-of-the mill pubs seemed to take pride in serving local produce, whether Cumberland sausages or the Herdwick lamb from the fells.

 

I saw wild garlic everywhere – on the roadside verges, along streams, in corners of people’s gardens and on waste ground. I’ve never seen so much of it. So I made a few dishes using this abundant local crop. My favourite was one of the simplest, inspired by the place I passed selling organic duck eggs from outside the gate with an honesty box to leave the money in.

Duck eggs are richer with hen’s eggs, with bigger yolks – perfect for a carbonara-style sauce. You don’t necessarily need cream for a carbonara sauce, and in any case I didn’t have any to hand. If I was using hen’s eggs I would separate them and just use the yolks, but as the duck egg yolks were so large I used the whole eggs, which still gave a wonderful golden colour (see picture at end). Bacon was replaced by wilted wild garlic leaves, and the dish finished with a fairly local cheese – I used Sykes Fell sheep’s cheese from Lancashire, which has got a good flavour without overpowering the sauce.

If you’re further south, the wild garlic season is well under way now, but you should have time to pick some – I found it in damp, wooded patches of Surrey and Sussex. Just pick the leaves – don’t uproot the bulbs, which aren’t big enough to be worth bothering with anyway.

I think my trip away has reminded me of the value of simple dishes that put good ingredients centre-stage. And I will definitely be paying more attention to where my food has come from.

Wild garlic carbonara 

Ingredients

Pasta, enough for two (I would suggest a short pasta shape with ridges for the sauce to cling to)

Two good handfuls wild garlic leaves

2 duck eggs, lightly beaten (or use 3 yolks only for a richer sauce)

About 50g/2oz hard cheese of your choice, to finish – I used Sykes Fell sheep’s cheese, but you could try a hard goats’ cheese, or Parmesan.

Method

Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water until cooked to your liking. While this is happening, wash and chop the garlic leaves. Put in a microwaveable dish and cook until they are all thoroughly wilted (probably about 2 minutes on full power, though it will depend on your microwave).

Drain the pasta, return to the pan (but off the heat) and stir in the cooked garlic leaves, making sure they are evenly distributed.

Add the beaten egg, stirring well. You want to work fairly quickly, so that the egg cooks slightly and thickens with the heat, but you don’t want the pan to still be so hot that you get scrambled egg.

Season with plenty of black pepper and serve with cheese for grating over.