Garden recipe: Homemade alioli

When it comes to colour, winter cooking can verge on dingy. All those braises and stews mean brown is often in the ascendant. Import a little zing by using the viridifloric essence of herbs and spinach to tint sauces, soups and, in this case, aioli (garlic mayonnaise) a vivid green. This recipe uses parsley to add a green tint to the garlic mayonnaise but depending on the season, you could swap in wild garlic, nettles of even fennel tops, which will give the sauce a slightly different flavour.

Ingredients

• 50-75g parsley (or wild garlic, nettles or fennel tops)
• 150ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• two egg yolks
• white pepper
• salt
• juice of one lemon
• 150ml sunflower oil

Method

1. First make the green oil by whizzing together 50-75g of parsley and 100ml of extra virgin olive oil in a food processor.
2. When the mixture is smooth, push it through a sieve and you will have a bright green oil with which to dye your aioli.
3. Crush two peeled cloves of garlic in a pestle and place in a liquidiser with two egg yolks.
4. Beat the yolks and garlic with a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of white pepper.
5. Pour in the oil (150ml extra virgin olive oil including the green oil) in a thin stream, adding a little boiled then cooled warm water if it starts to get too thick, whisk in the juice of one lemon and then add 150ml of sunflower oil, again in a thin stream.
6. Store in the fridge, covered until needed.

Words Jojo Tulloh