Creamy pasta with asparagus

We used fettucine because we didn't have tagliatelle on hand and I was too lazy to make my own.

This recipe is to celebrate Spargelzeit, the asparagus season which my German-learning husband tells me is officially over June 24. We’ve never devoted the space to grow it ourselves, but luckily the farmers markets remedy that deficiency with a fat bouquet of nice tender stalks available for $5.

Tagliatelle with asparagus

Adapted from “The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces” by Diane Seed, a gift from a former co-worker at a former job in a former life. (Thanks, Valerie!) It’s in the genre of cookbooks strewn with charming color drawings that illustrate the spirit of the recipes more than they represent the actual dish with any degree of accuracy. This recipe worked even though my 1920s one-and-a-half story bears no resemblance to the Tuscan villa depicted along with it. 

The British book includes ingredients in both metric and American measures, and there are references to cooking things at Mark 4, which can make you feel cosmopolitan while you prepare it. (Well that and the homemade limoncello I sipped while cooking, listening to the Cooking with the Classics playlist in the new Amazon Prime stream. One nit: Who designs a playlist with music that varies so much in sound level when you will clearly not have clean hands free to adjust the volume?)

Ingredients

1 pound tagliatelle or other long, wide pasta ribbons

1 pound asparagus, tough ends snapped off

4 ounces butter (1 stick)

1 slice stale white bread, made into large crumbs

1 cup heavy cream

Chicken stock (or veggie)

½ cup grated fontina, Gruyere or Emmenthal cheese

Method

Cook pasta to al dente.

Meanwhile, cut asparagus sprigs into chunks, about 1 inch on the lower ends of stalks and about 1½ on the upper ends so the bracts stay together. Steam for about 2½ minutes in a microwave steamer bag, or cook via the method of your choice until the asparagus is just shy of being cooked. Stash the bag into the freezer briefly to stop the cooking (or drain asparagus and plunge into ice water).

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Cook bread crumbs for a few minutes until they’ve softened and picked up some color. Stir in cream, a generous grind of black pepper, a splash of broth as needed and the asparagus. Cook for about 5 minutes and keep warm until pasta is ready.

Toss pasta with sauce and cheese. Season to taste with salt if needed, which if you’re using salted butter,you probably won't need.

Rating: The recipe touted itself as being subtle and delicate while producing a lasting memory. That’s a lot of hype to live up to, but it was a very nice dish. The browned bread crumbs really elevate it from a run-of-the-mill creamy asparagus pasta and keep it from being too cloying. Dave thinks it seems almost meaty rather than just a vegetarian pasta (which obviously it can be if you opt for vegetable stock).

Variation: I like this recipe about as well as my other favorite creamy asparagus pasta, an amalgamation of recipes in which three minced garlic cloves are sautéed in olive oil, and then the cream, steamed asparagus, quarter cup of limoncello and some lemon zest are added before the pasta, sauce and Parmesan cheese are tossed together and flavored with salt and pepper. The limoncello adds a nice bright flavor.