Wild asparagus, sauté wild greens from Taygetos, soft-boiled egg, sfela cheese sauce and tomato, lemon and olive oil sauce

Recipe by chef Nena Ismirnoglou, Messinian Gastronomy Seminars 2014

Instructions

Rosemary olive

Boil salted water in a small saucepan and add rosemary. After 20 seconds add the parsley and boil for another 10 seconds. Strain and place in a bowl with ice. Strain well and dry the herb leaves with towel paper. Transfer to a Thermomix and add olive oil. Mix for 2 minutes. Using a double fine mesh strainer strain liquid without mixing. Retain the oil, which can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 20 days.

Sfela cheese in wine sauce

Boil wine at high temperature for 5 minutes until 150 ml are left in the saucepan. Place all the ingredients for the sauce in a Thermomix bowl and beat at 40°C until combined thoroughly – for about 3 minutes. Taste for flavor. The sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Tomato

Cut the tomatoes into quarters. With a sharp knife remove the core and flesh of the tomato. Do not throw these away as we will use it for the tomato, lemon and olive oil sauce. Slice tomatoes into thin slices lengthwise. Place tomato slices in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, add the spring onion and all the herbs, chopped into regular pieces, 10 ml lemon juice and 30 ml olive oil. Combine and set aside.

Tomato, lemon and olive oil sauce

In the Thermomix place 500 g of chopped tomatoes, including the tomato flesh we had set aside. Mix well for 2 minutes and strain. There should be about 350 ml of juice left, which we set aside. Mix all the ingredients in the Thermomix except for the xanthan gum. At the end reduce to speed 3 and add the xanthan gum. Mix for 2 minutes. Store in the refrigerator up to 3-4 days.

Wild greens

Boil salted water in a large pot and add the wild greens, each variety separately and boil accordingly (2-3 minutes). Transfer greens to a bowl with ice. Strain.

Pour some olive oil in a large heavy bottom skillet and add the garlic. When heated, remove the garlic, add some coarse salt and sauté each individual variety of wild greens for 30 seconds. For each variety of wild greens, add some more olive oil and garlic in the skillet. Let the wild greens strain in a Gastronorm sieve and cool.

Serving suggestion

Soft boil or poach eggs. To poach, place 4 silicone muffin cups filled with water and 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Crack each egg in a cup and then put into the muffin cup. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 180^oC. Put wild greens, asparagus, tomato mixture, herbs in a mixing bowl and combine by adding 100 ml from the tomato, lemon and olive oil sauce. Taste for flavor. On each plate place the greens mixture and then the egg on top. If the egg is boiled, cut into halves, season with salt and pepper and plate food with sfela cheese sauce, tomato, lemon and olive sauce, and rosemary oil lines.

See chef Nena Ismirnoglou cooking the recipe here.