Roasted trout with wild garlic pesto, griddled asparagus, and Mediterranean stuffed peppers

Duffer's fortnight is well and truly upon us. Earlier this week I had the fortune to attend the Future Countryside 2025 conference, at a modest and little-known house in Derbyshire. As the sun glistened off the gilt window frames and the babbling waters of the Derwent alike, mayfly bent on hovering wing. Being the gastronaut that I am, my mind instantly went in one direction: trout.

There are many delicious ways of preparing this treasured fish, from sashimi to almondine. The following is a summery, Mediterranean take, perfectly suited to our present sunshine.

INGREDIENTS:

• Two 2lb trout
• Two Romano peppers
• Two bunches asparagus
• 25g shaved parmesan
• 8 fillets jarred anchovies
• 2 cloves garlic
• A sprinkle of dried oregano
• Olive oil
• A lemon, sliced
• 25g fresh thyme
• Salt and black pepper for seasoning

Wild garlic pesto:

• A generous handful of wild garlic leaves
• 5g toasted pine nuts
• 25g parmesan
• 50ml olive oil

METHOD:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Stuff the cavity of the trout with the sliced lemon and thyme, season inside with salt and black pepper.
3. Drizzle a baking tray with olive oil, set the trout belly down in the tray and season with olive oil, salt and pepper on the outside.
4. Prepare another baking tray drizzled with olive oil. Slice the peppers in half lengthways, removing the seeds, membrane and stalk. Thinly slice the garlic cloves and anchovies. Set the pepper halves skin-side down in the tray, and sprinkle the sliced garlic, anchovies, parmesan shavings, and dried oregano inside them, before drizzling more olive oil on top.
5. Prepare the pesto. Put the wild garlic leaves, parmesan, and olive oil in a food processor (you can blanch the wild garlic leaves beforehand if you seek a milder taste), and blend. Add the pine nuts, and blend again until you form a coarse paste.
6. Place the baking tray with the peppers in the oven. After 15 minutes, place the baking tray with the trout into the oven as well, and cook for a further 15 minutes.
7. In the meantime, prepare your asparagus by snapping off the dry ends of the spears. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. When the peppers and fish are just under ten minutes from being done, heat a cast-iron griddle over a high heat. Add the asparagus spears, and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side, so that the asparagus has a light char and is tender. Remove from the griddle.
8. Remove the trout and peppers from the oven. Place a serving the griddled asparagus on each plate and top with a fillet of trout. Serve a roasted pepper half alongside each, before adding a generous spoonful of pesto atop each fillet. Enjoy straightaway.