The trickiness of purple sprouting broccoli & a spelt & anchovy salad in exaltation

A sod to grow, but this is the recipe to celebrate if you manage it: roasted with chilli and garlic, tossed with anchovy sauce, spelt & almonds. Plus, some more ways to enjoy this troublesome harvest.

Purple sprouting broccoli, PSB as it’s known, is an absolute bugger to grow.

Really technical. It takes at least nine months in the soil to grow, needs loads of space, is susceptible to cabbage white butterfly caterpillars in the summer, ravaged my pigeons in the winter, hates to be rocked by the wind, doesn’t like it too hot. You get the idea. If you can grow PSB, you can, in my option, do anything. But it is also utterly delicious and cropping at a time, February to April, when almost nothing else does.

I have grown it once or twice.

But since each plant requires four square feet in the beds for virtually the entire growing season, it’s really a plant for those with allotments. If you’re up for a challenge, read this excellent How To guide from Gardeners’ World.

There is, though, nothing like the feeling when you harvest PSB.

I still remember the feeling I had when I harvest my first posey of PSB. I pottered up to the nearby farm (my old growing space) one damp March weekend to check on progress.

The trunks of the plants were woody and fat, tied at irregular intervals to a stake in the ground to keep them upright, the lower twine already decomposing having been first deployed some six months ago. The broccoli stood almost a metre high, its head is a fuzzy mass of tight, purple florets and blue-green leaves, like a stout granny with a blue rinse perm. This old matriarch was nothing but a seed nine months ago and now I can reach into the crown and snip off a bouquet of buds as generous as any from a florist. I carried it home exultant, an armful of potential. What an achievement.

This is one of the dishes I made.

And have continued to make since (with bought PSB admittedly) – a warm salad for an inclement spring night in the thick of the Hungry Gap. And for that we need something hearty and wholesome – spelt. The spelt grains are from Sharpham Park, but they are, devastatingly, about to close down. Fortunately, Hodmedods are now producing spelt grains, which differ from the more common pearled spelt in that it has not been bounced over stones to remove the external bran casing and has a firmer texture and a nutter taste.

PSB loves anchovies, like all brassicas and this sauce will see you good for dressing any brassica from cabbages to radishes. PDB also loves:

• Topping with crumbled feta

• Tossing in chilli and garlic then roasting (as below)

• Steaming then dressing with olive oil, orange juice and toasted almonds

• Topping with caramelised or roast onions and walnuts (as suggested by the ever inventive

  Rosie Mackean
  here)

But first, roasted with chilli and garlic then daubed with anchovy sauce and tossed with nutty spelt grains and almonds…

Charred purple sprouting broccoli with anchovies & spelt

This anchovy sauce can be made in bulk, in fact, it will whizz far better if made in a decent quantity. So doubling the amount below will give you enough leftover to dress beetroot, dunk radishes into, or just eat with a spoon. And don’t be tempted to omit the red onions, they add a sour crunch to the dish that gives everything a lift.

Serves 2

• 150g spelt grains