Original subtitles

Springtime is here.

And there's some incredible British fruit and veg

bursting with flavour and ripe for the picking.

From sweet and tender broad beans

to chard the colours of the rainbow.

These are the incredible ingredients that are at their best right now.

They're at their most delicious, most affordable,

better for you and the planet.

So, if you find the time to make something special,

I've created some exciting meals for whatever the occasion,

that makes the most out of what's in season.

From epic ideas for pizza toppings

and pan-fried fish suppers...

That is so good.

...oozy risottos and spicy curries.

Full of optimism, just like spring.

And the sweetest springtime tarts.

That rhubarb flavour is just extraordinary.

So, join me at home in my shed

as I spend the year cooking what's in season,

in the hope that it inspires you to have a think about

the way you cook, shop, or even grow your food too.

Might just put a little bit of spring in your step.

You like that?

This is very exciting

because the asparagus season has finally started.

First things first is if you see

lovely, local asparagus in season, buy it.

Markets, supermarkets, buy it.

If it's local, buy it.

Because they've only got a picking season

of, like, five to six weeks,

that just makes the whole thing much more exciting.

So we've got purple asparagus, green asparagus here,

and they're just coming up now.

I normally go an inch under the soil

with a little penknife and just cut it like that.

I mean, I know that that's going to be a bit woody down here

but if I just bend it,

it will always click at the non-woody part.

I thought I'd take this opportunity

to show you how you can plant in some new asparagus plants.

I've gone about six inches down

and what I've got here

is some asparagus crowns.

Look at those!

It's more like an octopus, really.

And what we're going to do is lay this

in this kind of gulley.

Cover that up.

It takes normally three years after you've planted them

to get any beautiful asparagus tips for cropping

and then they'll last for, like, ten to 20 years.

I've got enough now.

This superstar veg is in season late April to the end of June

and I'm going to pan-fry it in bacon

and serve it with sustainably sourced red mullet,

scallops, squid and sea bass.

A special meal to impress your guests -

pan-cooked asparagus and seafood.

Because asparagus is so delicate

and sweet and gorgeous and fragrant,

I want to serve it with something that's equal to that,

and fish is a fantastic thing to have with it.

Got some scallops here, really special.

Red mullet here.

Squid,

some beautiful sea bass,

and they've all been filleted.

So this is actually from my memories of being a kid.

We used to have mixed fish grill

on at the pub all the time.

Let's start with the red mullet.

Score it, about half a centimetre deep.

Means you can get seasoning into here,

like a little concertina.

Cut that in half

and do one nice, little slice for two people.

Right, then the scallop.

We can just use a spoon,

just to go underneath

and take this out.

So we've got one there.

You get these in our waters,

they're amazing, cold, clean waters.

Just score it in a little crisscross

about a centimetre apart,

about halfway down.

It's going to open out like a flower.

It's going to allow flavours and dressings

and marinade to get in.

Hi, Conker.

You can sense fish, can't you, my friend?

Conker likes fish, actually.

Then we've got squid.

Put the knife inside the squid like that

and simply just cut through.

Open it out like a book, right,

and then with no weight at all,

use a normal eating knife

and just score...

...like a little chequerboard.

The tentacles you'll find that people often push away,

but actually if you cut them up into little bits,

they're much more manageable,

so I'll just put them like that.

And then you've got the sea bass.

I'm going to do exactly the same as the red mullet,

but I'm going to so slightly deeper, halfway down,

about a centimetre apart.

Just take a little bit of fennel tops

and stick it into these little cuts.

So whether it was little, delicate spices,

fennel seeds, you know, salt, pepper seasoning,

a little marinade,

thyme tips, you know,

garlic, chilli, try it all.

So, next up, asparagus.

I'm going to take a couple of nice asparagus sprigs here.

Don't throw that away.

That makes amazing sauces and soups

and all that good stuff.

But smoky bacon is very good friends with asparagus

and very good friends with beautiful seafood.

So, just take a dry-cured, thin slice of smoky bacon

and just use the side of the knife to flatten it out.

Take a piece of asparagus

and then you can just wrap it in lovely, smoky bacon.

The bacon protects the asparagus so it doesn't overcook,

but it also flavours it.

Beautiful.

So that, with the fish,

I think is going to be incredibly exciting.

You only have to do it with four.

So I'm going to show you a very simple dressing.

Get yourself a nice, juicy lemon,

squeeze the juice.

Add some beautiful extra virgin olive oil.

Twice the amount of olive oil

to lemon juice works really, really well.

Flavour it with a little hit of salt.

Chilli is so good in this.

Just take the tops off,

cut it lengthwise

and then scrape out the seeds

and, importantly, the white membrane,

and that way you do get the heat

but it's more of a warmth.

Chop 'em up nice and fine.

You can get a chilli from the supermarket,

but you can grow them here in the UK.

You could do it on a little windowsill.

Pick a herb. I'm actually going to go for thyme.

We always think of thyme as being quite a frumpy, woody herb

but actually, at this time of year in spring,

it's all the new growth, so it's juicy, much fresher.

Olive oil now, into a pan.

Take a little bit of salt and season the sea bass.

So we're going to go skin side down

to give you that beautiful, crispy skin.

It's also going to protect the flesh.

Go in with the asparagus with the bacon.

Now, the bacon's doing a few things.

It needs to get crispy and golden,

but it's also going to protect the asparagus

so you don't overcook it.

Now, what you can do with the asparagus as well,

is if you feel it's cooked,

just put it on top of the fish

like that, so you're controlling how much cooking it's getting.

We'll go in now with the squid.

I'm going to use some thyme.

Look at the scallop,

and when I turn it, it opens up like a flower.

And now, those little bits of extra asparagus.

And we can take some of that lovely dressing that we've done.

So this is really exciting now.

So, I'm going to turn off the heat.

To go with it,

I've just put new potatoes in some boiling water with some mint.

Just cooked them for, like, eight minutes,

but I let them sit in the water

so it almost absorbs that lovely kind of mint tea.

Jamie. Hey!

Jamie. Oh, there you are.

Hello, Dad.

What a lovely surprise!

How are you? Hello, mate. You all right?

They said you were out in your new shed.

Your timing is amazing.

Wow, look at this.

I'm doing like a version of, like, a mixed grill, but in a pan.

Yeah, mixed fish grill.

Do you remember, we used to do these when we had specials at the pub?

We did. Look at how you've scored the scallops

and, well, all the fish, really.

And the asparagus out the garden?

Yeah. Um, I had my first crop today.

Did you really? Yeah.

What I'm going to do is serve up some lovely new potatoes.

Would you like to have a little bit of lunch with me? I'd love to.

I was actually just doing it for myself,

but you are more than welcome to...

Where's Mum?

She doing that aerobics again?

Pilates, I think today.

I'm going to do a quick salad, Dad. Yeah.

Something that's really nice at the moment and really seasonal

is some goats' curd.

And I don't know if you've had any lately.

No. And I just beat it up like this

and put it on the bottom of a plate, like that,

and then I've got some spinach from the garden.

You can get the baby spinach in the supermarkets

which is really good as well.

Look how nice that little preparation

on the asparagus is, Dad.

Most people couldn't cut asparagus as thin as that.

No, it's not cheffy. It's literally that speed peeler over there.

What, this? Really?

Can you just take a bit of that dressing

and just put it in and around that for me, Dad? Mm.

And then you can, you can also put some on the curd as well,

which is lovely.

Is that about right? Yeah, it won't be too hot, Dad.

Yeah, put some around the plate as well,

be like a fancy chef geezer. Oh, OK.

You've given me freedom here, haven't you?

So, my dad trained as a chef as well.

When he was a young boy, went to France,

came back,

and been cooking ever since, haven't you, Dad?

Yep.

I'm just putting that dressing in the pan,

to pick up all those sticky bits...

...and put it into those scallop cuts.

Look at that.

Right, let me wash me hands.

What a treat.

You wait till I tell Mum what she's missed.

No, she'll be well gutted.

But seafood, especially now,

it is a treat, isn't it?

It is and especially, like,

with the asparagus at the moment,

you know, it's, it's...

You just want to eat as much as you can.

Mm.

I love the fact like,

there's a fat asparagus

and these little, tiny ones.

Have you tried one of these asparagus with the bacon?

Oh, mate.

Mm, it's really good.

That is so good. Well...

...tell you what, Dad, that is

one of the nicest lunches I've had in a while.

Thanks for popping round.

So what did you come round for?

You normally come round to borrow something or steal something.

Um, steal something.

Yeah, what are you after?

Tomato plants?

A scarifier.

I like looking round to see what I can snaffle.

JAMIE LAUGHS

This is always a really exciting time of year

because we're planting out the tomatoes.

We'll pick them when they're ready,

so about June, July,

and I always try and grow lots of different varieties.

There's hundreds, honestly, different shapes, sizes.

Orange, red, almost black, green,

fat ones, and they all have unique flavours,

but in and around this garden, you know,

I really wanted to kind of grow things

in the old-fashioned way,

not using pesticides,

or herbicides or sprays, or anything like that.

And what we can do to aid that is companion plant,

and that means things that benefit from being together.

So, when you grow tomatoes,

there's a few little bugs, aphids,

that love to start nibbling away at them,

so you can put things in there that deter that.

Things like marigolds,

they're quite pungent in smell

and they deter some of those little aphids.

Basil has been used in the Mediterranean

in doorways of your house to ward off bugs.

Whether you're doing it in a big old container like this,

or a big flower box, or out in the veg patch,

you know, this idea of companion planting

is a brilliant, beautiful thing that works.

I'm going to show you that spring greens can be super special

and there's loads of different types in season right now

that you can use as a gorgeous filling

for these impressive seasonal greens ravioli.

Beautiful spring greens.

You're going to see these all over the supermarkets

and markets right now,

so what I'm going to do today is show you

the most beautiful but very humble

home-made spring greens ravioli.

But I'm also going to use anything leafy

and green that's bang in season,

so that includes things like spinach.

That's fresh from the garden but it's all over the supermarkets.

Kale, Swiss chard - delicious.

Of course, when you buy pasta,

dried stuff, it's fantastic,

but making your own is another level.

So, 300g of soft flour,

this is Tipo 00.

It's very fine, like talcum powder.

You can find it in the supermarkets, no worries.

Into there, we're going to use two eggs.

Then I'm going to take four eggs out

and I'm going to take just the yolks,

with my fingers, very carefully.

By using mostly the yolks,

you're enriching your pasta.

Just hug it and then down it goes.

Here, I've got egg whites.

That'll go in a bag in the freezer for another day,

for making meringue and things like that.

Have a little whisk up.

Use the fork to bring in the flour.

So what we want is a lovely, soft,

elastic, smooth dough.

What we're essentially trying to make

is an edible version of Play-Doh

when we were kids.

Knead this for, like, four minutes

and you can see it getting really nice and tight.

Get yourself a little wet cloth like this.

Leave it for, like,

half an hour to chill out and relax

and then you can stretch it like that,

beautiful.

Now, if you see spring greens, they're in season.

Run for it, go for it.

Kales, chards, like mix it up.

Get yourself a large casserole-style pan.

I'm going to get some lemon with some garlic.

Just take a few cloves from

this beautiful garlic here.

This is semi-new season.

You can see it's nice and soft,

but any garlic is good.

Into the pan with some olive oil.

We'll slice up the garlic,

just like roughly slice it any old how.

Doesn't have to be perfect.

I want to use a little bit of dried chilli, right.

I don't want to feel the heat from the chilli,

I just want it in the background,

but it's particularly good with greens.

A nice little pinch.

Also, put some lemon zest into there.

The flavours from the zest is spectacular.

Now, the spinach.

If the stalks are nice, soft and edible, then you can keep them on.

The kale, grab the stalk and take that off like that

and then you're left with the leaf

and then in with the spring greens.

In no time at all, we're sizzling down the greens.

A little squeeze of lemon juice,

a nice pinch of salt and pepper,

and those mixed greens

are going to be absolutely delicious.

Take this out and put it onto a board,

and just let it cool down for a second.

What we need to do to get it inside the ravioli is have

a carrier, right?

And good old, mashed potato is

actually a carrier

for a ravioli filling.

I've got some new potatoes cos

that's what's in season right now

and I've just cooked a few.

So, about the same volume...

...of potatoes as the mixed greens.

Mash it up.

Then we're going to use some cheese.

I've got two Italian cheeses.

Parmesan is just delicious

and fantastic for seasoning things like this.

That's probably about 30g of Parmesan.

And then half as much in the pecorino.

This is more tangy.

A little pinch of salt.

And a little squeeze of lemon juice.

Now you can see how

the potato has given you a nice form.

So, we'll just take some little balls...

...like that.

I tend to do it on the weekend.

Kids love doing it -

they like getting involved, which is always a bonus.

Make more than you need - and they freeze amazingly,

and you can cook from frozen in

boiling water.

Takes about four-and-a-half minutes

to cook all the way through.

Let's make some pasta.

I want to do it old-school,

nonna-style, with a rolling pin.

No machine, no flash kit.

So, I'll take half of this pasta -

always wrap it up when you don't use it.

Just put some flour down.

Look at that.

Much more stretchy.

Really nice.

We get rolling.

Everyone always thinks you have

to have these flashy pasta machines,

which are very cool and I do like them,

I use them,

but it's nice to use...

...the old-school every now and again as well.

Roll out this pasta to

the biggest sheet you can.

You need to go thin

because you're going to fold it.

Look at that.

It's lovely.

It doesn't matter what shape it is.

Now we've got the pasta like this,

I'm just going to slice it up...

...like that.

And we'll make some ravioli.

Now, one thing you can do first -

this is a cheat, the nonnas would never do this -

you get like those

little spritz waters

and you put that over the top.

The rustic way would be to

use a brush and water.

Then you take your little

balls and place it here

and then give it two inches

and another one there.

Two inches and another one there.

And I'm going to take these over

and I'll make some more a little bit later.

I'm just going to simply grab

the two ends like this

and then just one, two, three,

go like that - and once you've done that,

I'm going to let it just stick on that end,

and then we want to get

the air out of here.

You don't want bubbles of

air cos that's going to float

and it won't cook right.

So we'll take this end

and we'll stick it

and then I use my thumb

to go down on it like that.

It's not complicated

but we're literally

flushing the air out.

So, over we go, push it down.

Always a joy, never a chore.

Once you've done that, take the ravioli,

make sure it's all nicely sealed

and then I'll use my

cutter to cut the edge.

You can get 'em on the

internet really easy.

I can use a knife to cut this into squares.

So these cutters,

they're actually sealing the pasta in

the most beautiful way,

so we'll run that down

the length, like this.

So, there you go - beautiful

little home-made raviolis.

Right, boiling water.

It's been seasoned with salt.

Plop this in.

These are going to cook

for about three minutes

and then what I want to do is create

a nice little flavoured

butter to serve it in.

I'm going to add a little oil first

and I'm going to fry some seasonal herbs.

We've got purple sage -

classic with ravioli -

and you only need like a few leaves,

and what I love about this frying of sage,

they're like little crisps,

so fragrant and delicious.

You can also put a few

bits of oregano, like this.

You can mix up the herbs.

Then I'm just going to put a

little knob of butter in.

Steal a little bit of the

cooking water from the ravioli

and that will form like

a little natural sauce.

So now we can take the raviolis.

They've had three or four minutes.

PAN SIZZLES

They've plumped up nicely.

Shake it around in that lovely, herby butter.

Turn the heat off.

I'll steal a little bit of the cooking water

and just let that sizzle.

You know, now it's off the heat,

a little bit of Parmesan

and with the fat

and the cooking water, you're

going to create like a cream.

Can you see that?

So it looks creamy and there's

no cream gone anywhere near it.

And then I'm just going to plate it up.

Oh!

Gorgeous!

Now I just finish it with a little Parmesan -

just a long stroke...

...and maybe a little pinch of black pepper.

Out of your humble mixed spring greens,

we have made something incredibly delicious.

Let's try some, come on.

Mm.

Wow.

The different spring greens are really delicious

and iron-y and with the

cheeses are fantastic,

and the potato just kind of

lightens it and just gives you texture.

This is what celebrating

spring is all about -

making beautiful things

out of what's in season

and what's in your fridge.

Joy - pure joy.

So, I've got some beautiful

spring onions here for this next dish.

The world of onions is called alliums,

so everything from chives, leeks, garlic.

So the actual spring onions are

our beautiful onions here.

They're the first ones to come up,

the first ones to be used

and readily available in all

the supermarkets all year round,

but when they're fresh,

they're even sweeter.

What's exciting for me is all

the different forms that onions come in -

different shapes, sizes.

You get all the different parts of

the onions that you can use.

You get the bulb, then you get

the mid part here which you can finely slice

and put into salads, stir-fries, all that.

And then the green part, listen to it...

GREENERY SQUELCHES It is so, so delicious.

The ability to grow,

pick and cook is fantastic

but if you get down the supermarkets

right now, they've got loads.

So look, I've got all my stuff.

It's nice to have a little sit down.

Let's do some cooking.

The sweet and vibrant flavour of this small

but mighty spring veg

pairs beautifully with fiery chilli,

garlic and lemongrass to pimp up

an aromatic curry paste in

my spicy green spring curry.

So, this dish is influenced

and inspired by Thai cooking -

and Thai cooks I think are some of

the masters of celebrating the bounty of the garden.

Certainly when I was

a younger man at college,

a Thai green curry, which this is based on,

it blew my mind,

absolutely blew my mind.

And I'm going to kinda recreate it today.

It's my version, of course, it's not authentic,

but it's not a million miles away.

We're going to use spring onions first

and foremost in three different ways.

I want to celebrate the

kind of base part of

the onion by actually treating

it like a vegetable, so

I'll brown that off and scald it.

And then the tops - I'm going to show you a way

to make 'em go crunchy,

curly and be a nice little kind of garnish.

Then the middle part here will make

the all-important paste that

gives you that fragrance

and that pong and that deliciousness.

So, take a liquidiser.

I'll go in with six cloves of garlic.

We're going to go six green chillies

from the supermarket, but you

can grow them here in the UK.

You could do it on a little windowsill.

By removing the seeds I'm

going to remove most of the heat.

Now, these chillies into here.

Next, lemongrass,

which I'm actually trying to grow this year.

Cut the top off, like this,

peel off that outer,

more stringy part.

Put it on its side and

just bust it up a little bit.

Oh!

The smell!

Again, growing your own ginger.

A great thing to try.

A nice, thumb-size piece of ginger.

Just chunk that up.

In we go.

Three beautiful limes.

Zest and juice.

Really, really nice.

These are coriander seeds.

About a heaped tablespoon,

really nice and savoury.

And then with the spring onion here,

base over here,

the middle part in the paste

and the bit that might go in

the bin, we're going to turn

into a beautiful garnish.

So, next up, fresh

coriander, washed,

stalks and leaves.

Few nice leaves of basil.

It's only going to do good things.

Let's get rid of these stalks,

put 'em in the composter.

Then, fresh lime leaves.

I'm going to tear that in.

Last thing that I do, which is

completely untraditional,

is some olive oil.

Just helps connect all

the beautiful flavours.

So, I'm going to liquidise this now.

Oh!

Woo!

That is an incredible thing.

Let's have a little taste, come on.

Whoa.

Pungent, fresh.

Every time you swallow,

there's another flavour.

So, what's brilliant about using

the onions in this paste,

there is a wonderful relationship

between the onions and

tenderising meat or fish.

So, on that note,

I've got some chicken

and I'm going to take a

separate knife for my chicken

and separate board.

Traditionally, you would see them

using chicken thigh and I love that.

That's my favourite cut,

but my kids go crazy for

the chicken breast, so I'm going to use both.

Take the chicken thigh -

cut them in half.

And then, with the chicken breast,

I'm just going to cut it into big,

kind of inch chunks.

You can do a quick marinade

like I'm going to do, cos I

want to get going with this,

but if you could do it overnight,

then you get mega flavour that

you will absolutely love.

So, let me take this board and

knife away and wash my hands.

OK. Get yourself a nice,

large pan, a medium-high heat.

Add a little bit of veggie oil.

I'm going to take these lovely

bases of the spring onion -

look at those.

And I'll start to colour those up

so we can celebrate them as

a vegetable in their own right.

So the thigh meat will need

a little bit more cooking.

The breast meat,

I will just plop in for the

last sort of ten or 12 minutes,

just to poach in that beautiful,

simmering curry sauce.

PAN SIZZLES Look at the colours.

Lordy, Lordy.

So, try not to touch the chicken,

let it kind of get nice and golden,

but in the time that it takes for me just

to brown one side,

I'm going to show you how to make the most delicious,

sticky coconut rice - it's so good.

It's one mug of basmati rice.

In that goes.

One of desiccated coconut -

unsweetened -

and then two of boiling water.

And we call it the absorption method,

and that equation will

give you delicious

and fluffy rice.

Pinch of salt,

give it a little shake,

little lid on top...

...and I'll put that on a medium

heat for about 12 minutes,

then turn it off

and leave the lid on.

So, we've got nice caramelisation on the onions -

love that.

Let's start turning the chicken now.

Once you've got that

colour on the thigh meat,

we'll go in with the

rest of the chicken breast.

Brilliant.

Next up,

we're going to go in with the coconut milk.

This is always a beautiful moment where

the coconut milk mixes

with all the sticky bits.

Hear that sizzle?

I'll turn it down

and just let it kind of blip away now

for like, ten, 12 minutes.

And the rice has had 12 minutes.

I'm going to turn that off.

So, if you put things

in icy cold water,

like herbs,

they really come back to life,

super crunchy.

Mint, basil, lovely little

coriander leaves.

Just take that little bit

of spring onion, just

try and do it thinly.

I've got some lovely little radishes here

and these are bang in season.

The lovely thing about cooking

in season is you also get

the benefit of the tops and the tails,

so we can use these like salad leaves.

Look at the colour.

That's going to be amazing.

This is nearly done.

What I have to do now is balance the flavour,

so I'm going to season it

with two things - soy sauce,

a tablespoon going in like

that, and then fish sauce,

about a teaspoon.

It gives you a saltiness

that is so incredible.

But it doesn't stop there.

I've got some beautiful

sprouting broccoli.

These are bang in-season as well.

With just like a minute or two to

go, take those lovely ends and

just give 'em a couple

of minutes' cooking.

So, this is a beautiful

Essex spring version of

a green curry.

I've got one little

twist in the tail,

one of my favourite things...

...prawn crackers.

Nice bit of texture at the end.

So let's plate some up.

For me,

there's nothing like a bowl of fluffy,

steamy rice - and then

we've got my green curry,

that mixture of both chicken

breast and chicken thigh.

Look at that.

Go in with a wadge of our

prawn crackers and of course,

all those fragrant bits of spring onions.

That food makes me very happy.

That's actually a massive portion.

It should be a little bit

smaller but I'm so excited,

I'm telling you -

let's get amongst it. Ah!

Mm.

The flavours are so alive and delicious.

Mm.

Sweet, salty, sour.

Wow.

Look, little bit of spring onion there.

Really, really nice.

Mm.

By browning them off at the beginning,

they're sweet and they're silky tender,

and then that paste which is, like, fragrant,

and then all those little

crunchy bits which are so good

with the soft rice.

That is a triple whammy.

Mm-mm.

That...

...is a springtime feast.

If you think, we've just

been through winter,

it's been dark, it's been miserable,

and now you've got all those lovely

things popping out the ground.

Mm.

SPADE CRUNCHES

PAN SIZZLES

VEGETABLES SQUELCH

BIRDS TWEET

When I was a kid growing up,

we didn't have flavours like ginger.

No, no, no, I didn't

grow up with that, no way!

Things like lemongrass.

And I never thought that you

could actually grow it.

Is that really going to happen in Essex?

It can, it can, it's amazing.

Like, you can literally,

on the lemongrass, this

is a pack from the supermarket -

you just take it out, put it into a jar of water,

couple of weeks,

and what you'll start to see is

the little roots starting to come out of here

and once you've got those roots,

then you can plant it in

with some peat free compost and you get this.

And the question is, why would you

do that when you can buy

it from the supermarket?

It's a really good question.

The first reason to do it is

because you're not going to

get one lemongrass for

the price of one lemongrass.

You're going to get many,

many, many, right?

So you're going to actually save

yourself a load of money.

The ginger's a really interesting one.

Once you've had it on your little

fruit bowl or wherever you keep yours -

that's where I keep mine - you get these little eyes,

these little nodules here.

Once it's got that, you can

actually click it off

and that can become one plant.

So let me show you how to do it.

Make a little space in the middle.

I'm just going to submerge

most of the ginger

and we'll water that in,

we'll keep it moist,

keep it warm

and what'll happen is it'll actually start

to shoot greenery

and then those roots will

just start replicating

and getting bigger and bigger.

And honestly,

I know you can just buy it from

the local corner shop or supermarket,

but growing something like this

that comes from halfway round

the world, in the UK,

is bonkers, it's fun

and it's kinda cool, right?

So, in springtime,

one of the most reliable

veggies is sprouting broccoli -

and don't get it confused

with broccoli-broccoli...

...with those big heads.

These are sprouting broccoli...

...and it's part of the same

family, the brassica family,

and it's available right now.

It's going to be at its cheapest,

most delicious,

most nutritious.

So don't just look at it,

get amongst it.

When you're down the markets and supermarkets,

when you see 'em, grab 'em.

I take a little tip of a knife

and I just run it down

the stalk in the middle

and then, after about an inch of doing that,

you can just pull the rest apart

and you just get this

gorgeous little mouthful.

Really, really nice.

Steamed, boiled, olive oil,

little knob of butter.

Stir-fry, couple of minutes.

Even on a pizza, delicious.

So, I love that.

Brilliant, brilliant spring vegetable.

I'm crowning purple sprouting broccoli

the king of spring veg

and giving it the royal treatment

in this Italian-inspired pizza

with British Cumberland sausage and a quick

and easy tomato sauce.

It's a brilliant broccoli pizza -

for all my party people out there.

When you eat seasonally,

it's more delicious,

it's better for you,

it's better for the planet

and it's definitely better for your wallet.

So, look, I'm going to take some

inspiration from the Italians

and I'm going to celebrate

this beautiful veg in

a way that might be

a little bit unexpected.

So, let's make pizza.

It's always a pleasure

and a treat to make

home-made bread of any kind.

So, let's start making

some nice dough.

One kilo of strong flour.

Make a well with your hand,

right in the middle, like that,

and then we can fill this

with 650ml of tepid water.

And this is the perfect temperature

to wake up the yeast.

So if you go to any of

the supermarkets,

they're going to have little

sachets like this of yeast.

So, 7g will give

you enough yeast to activate

and make a lovely, fluffy pizza,

so shake all of that out.

What's going to happen is

the yeast is going to wake up.

We'll add some olive oil,

one tablespoon or two,

and then a couple of good

pinches of sea salt.

There's something beautiful

about making bread,

whether it's pizza dough,

focaccia, little flatbreads,

little loaves. And again,

bread can kind of riff

off the seasons -

you know, whether that's, you know,

fruits, veggies, herbs.

And about now, it's getting too

hard to use the fork any more,

so we can bring in the flour

and we just start moving it around.

Just knead this for, like...

...five minutes?

Just pick it up.

Throw it down.

So now we need to let the dough rest

and we need the yeast to

really kick into action.

Get a nice, big bowl.

Little bit of olive oil.

So, just around the edge,

just so it doesn't stick.

So, get your tea towel,

get it wet.

Rinse it out.

So, this will make it nice and

humid, which will help the dough prove.

This has had an hour, just over.

It's more than doubled in

size, so at this stage,

we do what is called a knock-back,

so just...

...give it a good...

...punch like that.

Let me tell you why you do that.

At the beginning, the yeast is quite wild, right?

So at this stage,

you knock it back and you

just get a more even prove.

And then cut it into four,

pretty equally,

and then cut the four...

...into half.

And it should give you

eight balls that are roughly

the same size.

I'm just going to use my

little fingers like a cage

and simply move it around like

that until you've got a nice,

plump dough ball.

Rub with oil.

I'm going to put one in the middle - like that.

So it goes two, one, two, one, two.

Give it a little dusting of flour.

We'll use the same cloth

here that's wet.

That, in an hour,

will be ready to go.

Right, so I'm going to let

that prove for an hour

and I am going to stoke up the wood oven

and then I'm going to turn this

beautiful sprouting broccoli

into something very delicious.

BIRDS SING

CHICKEN CLUCKS

This is very exciting.

So we're going to celebrate this season

with sprouting broccoli,

four gorgeous sausages,

fennel and chilli -

that's one of my favourite pizzas ever.

So, I've got the broccoli

trimmed down nicely.

The first job I'm going to do,

just carefully cut down

the length of the sausages

and then we'll take that skin off.

Then we can kind of break it up

into nice little kind of

little mini meatballs.

This is a beautiful British

Cumberland sausage

but we want to take it to

Italy a little bit

and I'm going to do that with

a couple of key ingredients.

So, we've got over

here fennel seeds.

Fennel and pork is incredible.

A little heaped

teaspoon over the top,

and then a little

teaspoon of flaked,

dried chilli.

And then this goes

straight into the oven.

So, doesn't take long.

Sort of five minutes,

getting things going.

I might just add another

little log in here.

Get that heat going.

So, let me just wash my hands.

Sausage is cooking.

When I'm making pizza,

lay it out a bit like a restaurant.

So I've got the mozzarella here,

I've got some Parmesan,

I've got some lovely English cheeses,

I've got some herbs, and I'm

going to make the tomato sauce.

So, let's have a little

check of the sausages.

SAUSAGES SIZZLE They're getting there.

You can break 'em up a little bit.

So now that's kind of cooked,

we're just kind of getting crispy.

I'll put the broccoli in now

and just toss it up

and take the rawness

out of the broccoli

so it's not too tough on your pizza.

So just mix that up

and back in the oven.

These have all beautifully

proved into each other.

Use a little fish slice,

get in there,

straight into some flour here.

Once it's floured,

take it to the board,

use the flat of my hand and

just press it out like this.

Just kind of encouraging that nice lip on the outside.

Then, take it like this, try

not to ever use your nails, right?

So, just kind of move it around,

make sure you got enough flour

and we're just kind of still

pinching that lovely edge,

but letting gravity...

...do that for you.

What you don't want is holes,

so that's the key.

Look at that - nice.

So, into the flour.

Push it out.

Beautiful.

So, nice and thin.

That's what we want - a nice, thin-crust pizza.

OK, tomato sauce.

Really, really simple.

Beautiful plum tomatoes,

a little salt, a little olive oil.

And then just carefully

scrunch those tomatoes.

As the day comes to

a bit of a close,

we're finishing with this...

...pizza party.

I love it.

So, a little spoon of the

tomatoes onto the pizza...

...then I've got our sausages here.

There, have a look at that.

So, I've just roasted up

the broccoli -

really, really nice.

Softened it up a bit, and

then we'll load up

some lovely mozzarella...

...like that.

And I'm going to do exactly

the same on each pizza.

We'll put a little bit

of the sausage and the

broccoli. PAN SIZZLES

Sausage, broccoli, chilli and

fennel is a classic combo in Italy.

I love using Italian and

British cheeses together.

A few little bombs in and around,

and then finish with a

little dusting of Parmesan.

Time for the wood oven.

It's a lovely dry heat.

I would say about four minutes.

This is about 300 degrees.

The sun is setting.

I think this...

...is done. Look at that.

Hot and steamy.

Finish with just a little olive oil.

And that is a thing of joy.

Feeling crunchy.

Let's get in there.

Let's have a little try.

I love it.

That is a joyful pizza.

The combination of spring broccoli

with the sausage, the chilli,

the fennel, sizzling away.

Home-made pizzas - what a

great way to celebrate that veg.

Mm!

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