Beans, prosciutto and pinenuts with roasted garlic and basil dressing
This is one of our favourite summer side dishes and one that's always on our Christmas lunch table. I usually make the dressing on Christmas Eve, and then finish the recipe off Christmas morning. It's well worth roasting the garlic head - the garlic ends up sweet and mellow.
600g Salty River Farm green beans
8 rashers thinly sliced prosciutto (Salash Deli's is devine and without nitrates)
Dressing
1/4 cup pinenuts
1 bulb garlic
4 Tbsp chopped Salty River Farm basil leaves
1/2 cup vinaigrette (my recipe below)
Salt and freshly cracked pepper to season
For the vinaigrette ... put 1/3 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp dijon mustard, cracked black pepper and 1/2 tsp salt in a jar and shake it up.
Cut the top off the garlic, drizzle with olive oil then wrap in baking paper and roast in a small dish until soft, then set aside to cool.
When cool, squeeze the pulp from the roasted garlic into the vinaigrette dressing jar. If the garlic is chunky, wizz the garlic and dressing together with a stick blender until smooth. Add the basil. Shake together and season well with salt and pepper to taste.
Top and tail the beans and quickly blanch in boiling water (we want them crunchy). Place blanched beans on a hot bbq grill or hot frypan. Once the beans are slightly blackened (but still crunchy), set aside to cool. Lightly fry the prosciutto until it's crisp and cut into small pieces. Toast the pinenuts until lightly browned.
Dress the beans with the dressing (you may not need all the dressing that my recipe makes ... so store any left over dressing in the fridge for tomorrow's salad!), and fold through most of the prosciutto and pinenuts, reserving some to sprinkle on top. Voila!