You can toss its lively young leaves in salads or tuck them into the cavity of a chicken or fish before roasting; finely shredded, they are a great addition to soups, stews, mash or scrambled eggs; you can steam the stems, braise the roots and use the seeds in biscuits and bread – what's not to love about lovage?
The flavour is like parsley and celery combined with a hint of aniseed and curry. And if you think that sounds intriguing, you'd be right. So why aren't we all using it by the handful, and why is it virtually impossible to buy? And why doesn't it have a place in every veg plot? Mysterious questions to which there is no answer, except perhaps a shrug and, "Luck of the draw, I guess."
Today I'd like to redress the balance a bit. I want you to feel the lovage – give it a small corner of your garden, find it a place in your kitchen, and it might find a place in your heart.
Lovage has sturdy, hollow stems, leaves that look like large Italian flat-leaf parsley and greenish-yellow flowers that are followed by golden-brown seed pods. It's a member of the Umbelliferae family, which includes carrots, parsnips, parsley and celery. As suggested above, you can use the leaves as a punchy substitute for parsley or celery (the French call it céleri bâtard) – go easy at first because it's stronger than both, though the flavour mellows abit in cooking.
Lovage is native to western Asia and the Mediterranean, and was admired by the ancient Greeks and Romans for its medicinal as well as for its culinary properties – it was believed to cure everything from rheumatism to sore throats and indigestion. Medieval travellers tucked the leaves into their shoes because of their antiseptic and deodorising properties. Charlemagne was so smitten, he ordered it to be grown in all of his gardens. As the name suggests, it was also thought to be an aphrodisiac (we also used to call it "love parsley").
So now I've sold you (I hope) on lovage, I should probably give you an idea of how to grow it, because you're not going to be able to get it from the corner shop. The first thing to know is that it's easy. Levisticum officinale is a hardy perennial herb that's simple to grow from seed – sow a few seeds in a tray or small pot and keep well watered on a sunny windowsill to germinate. Prick out and pot on when each plant is a few inches high. Easier still, buy a small pot of growing lovage (any decent garden centre should sell it), plant it out and grow it on. If you don't have a dedicated herb patch, it looks good in a flowerbed, too – 2m tall, lush, bold and shapely – in among the flowers. Italso grows on very well in a large, deep pot. Plant out at any frost-free time from late spring to early autumn, and divide large plants in autumn or spring. Keep it clipped (easy, when you realise how useful it is in the kitchen) to encourage fresh new shoots and don't let it dry out – lovage is fairly thirsty. If you can't find seeds or plants, jekkasherbfarm.com sells both by mail-order.
Back to the kitchen, then. The green leaves, cut into fine ribbons, are very good with lightly cooked summer veg. Or add them, chopped, to salads or stuffings for pork or chicken, or to fish chowder, or to just-boiled new potatoes in a mustardy vinaigrette. Lovage is delicious with eggs, too – stir leaves into omelettes, scrambled egg or frittata. Tender young stems (from the centre of the plant) can be steamed and served asa side vegetable – lovely with a summer roast chicken.
You can even peel the large tap roots and use them in stews, or cook them as you would salsify. When the seeds start to turn brown, harvest them and use in place of celery seeds in pickling mixtures, breads or in savoury biscuits to go with cheese. You can even use the hollow stems asa peppery, tongue-tingling stirrer for bloody mary – and if that doesn't make you fall for this most lovely of herbs, I don't know what will.
Lovage, lettuce, pea and cucumber soup
A refreshing and pretty summer soup. Serves four.
20g butter
1 onion, finely diced
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few young lovage stalks, chopped
700ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 little gem lettuces, finely shredded
100g peas
½ cucumber, cut into 5mm dice
1 small handful lovage leaves, shredded
A few tablespoons of crème fraîche or thick yoghurt, to finish
Warm the butter in a large saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the onion, thyme and a pinch of salt, and sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the lovage stalks and sauté for acouple of minutes. Pour in the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the rest of the veg (keep back some lovage leaves to garnish) and simmer for five minutes. Season and serve with dollops of crème fraîche and ascattering of lovage leaves.
Mackerel and lovage tarts
If you're short of time, this works well with bought puff. And make one big tart instead of six smaller ones, if you prefer. Serves six.
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, finely diced
2 bay leaves
3 soft lovage stems (about a stick of celery's worth), finely sliced
350g potatoes, peeled, cooked and cut into 2cm cubes
4 mackerel fillets, cooked, skinned and flaked
1 small handful lovage leaves, finely shredded, plus extra for serving
2 tbsp finely chopped dill fronds, plus extra for serving
3 tbsp crème fraîche
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the rough puff pastry
250g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
500g plain flour
Pinch of salt
About 150ml iced water
1 egg, lightly beaten with 1 tsp of milk, for glazing
Freshly ground black pepper
First make the pastry. Toss the butter in the flour with the salt until coated, then add just enough water (you may not need it all) to bring it together into a fairly firm dough. Form this into a rectangular shape with your hands and, on a well-floured surface, roll it out in one direction, away from you, into a 1cm-thick rectangle. Fold the two short ends into the middle so they overlap, like folding a letter. Give the pastry a quarter turn, repeat the rolling out five more times, then wrap in cling-film. Rest in the fridge for an hour.
Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6. Put the oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat, add the onion and bay, and sauté gently until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the lovage stems, fry for a couple of minutes, then tip into a bowl with the potato, flaked fish, lovage leaves, dill and crème fraîche. Remove the bay, season and cool.
Roll the pastry into a rectangle about 35cm x 45cm. Cut into six smaller rectangles. Cut a 1cm strip from the edge of each and reserve. Place the rectangles on a large baking sheet lined with parchment, and lightly brush the edges with egg wash. Place the strips around the edges to make a border, and brush lightly with egg wash. Prick the bases of the tarts with a fork.
Bake for 15 minutes until they're starting to turn golden, remove from the oven and divide the filling between the tarts, piling it up quite high. Bake for five to 10 minutes until warmed through. Scatter over dill and lovage, and serve hot or warm.
Courgette and lovage pasta
A quick, easy dish. Serves four.
4 courgettes, about 400g
400g dried penne or fusilli
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
Zest of ½ small lemon
1 small handful lovage leaves, finely shredded
80g parmesan, grated, plus extra
160g ricotta, broken into chunks
Trim the tops and bottoms off the courgettes, then shred into ribbons with a sharp vegetable peeler.
Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, add the courgettes, season and sauté until slightly golden, about five minutes. Add the garlic and lemon zest, and fry for a minute. Stir in the lovage. Taste and season again.
Drain the pasta (reserve some cooking water) and toss with the courgettes, a couple of tablespoons of cooking water, parmesan and ricotta. Serve in warmed bowls with more parmesan sprinkled on top.
