This wild garlic pici pasta recipe is incredibly simple to make and here we keep the cooking simple with a super quick butter sauce. If you can’t get hold of wild garlic, you can also use nettles (blanched then spun dry) or spinach as an alternative.
If you wanted to supercharge the flavour, then you could toss your pici pasta in some pesto, traditional basil will do just fine or double up on the garlicky goodness and add some extra wild garlic.
Or – give it a try served with a rich and unctuous venison ragu, topped with our ever favourite pangrattato (a mix of breadcrumbs, citrus zest, anchovy, chilli and garlic cooked gently in rapeseed oil on ever such a low heat until golden and crisp).
200g wild garlic (or spinach if the season has passed)
2 eggs
A good pinch of salt
600g type 00 flour
Drizzle rapeseed oil
Large knob of butter
Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Making the Dough
Wash your wild garlic and drain well, shaking out as much water as possible.
Place wild garlic, eggs, salt and rapeseed oil into a food processor. Blitz together until finely chopped.
Add the flour to the mixer and pulse until completely combined and starting to form dough.
Making the Pasta
Lightly flour your work surface and turn the pici dough out, knead lightly for a couple of minutes until smooth.
Cover the dough with a cloth to stop it from drying out whilst you roll out your pici pasta.
Take small marble sized pieces of dough and roll them between your hands to form a rough sausage shape. Place this on to the table and using light pressure continue to roll into a long string. Once rolled lay your pici pasta onto a lightly floured tray so that they don’t stick.
Continue until you have used up all the dough.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and gently place in your pici pasta. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until tender. Whilst your pici pasta is cooking place another pan on to a medium heat and add the knob of butter with a drop of rapeseed oil. Allow the butter to brown slightly but not burn.
Toss the your pici pasta in the brown butter adding a couple of tablespoons of the pasta cooking water.
Sprinkle in the parmesan and toss to combine, you may need to add a touch more water at this point to loosen things up a bit.
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