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Asparagus

Dinner, Italian, Pasta, Recipes, Summertime Meal, Vegetarian, Veggies

Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas

August 1, 2023

With its beautiful bright green colors and aromatic tarragon, this pasta primavera earned 5* ratings on NYT Cooking site. After making this dish I can see why everyone loves it. It’s loaded with fresh asparagus, snap peas and green peas. Fresh tarragon is what makes this dish special.

The pasta I used (Mafaldine) is wide and flat with ruffled edges. It has a striking appearance when cooked and works well with many pasta dishes. The original recipes calls for fettuccine or tagliatelle which are much easier to find. If you want to try malfadine, you can find it at Amazon. Fresh tarragon can be found at Whole Foods.

Pasta Primavera (Spring in Italian) is a dish that combines lightly cooked vegetables with fresh herbs. Now that spring has passed and summer is here, it’s still a perfect time to find fresh asparagus at the markets. Sugar snap peas seem to be available year round as well as peas (frozen). I bought a well known brand of frozen peas that were chalky and had no flavor. I searched online for reviews of peas and found multiple top ratings for Woodstock Organic Peas. They are sweet and have a nice texture. So these are the only peas I buy now. You can find Woodstock Organic Peas at Hawaiian Moons on Maui.

Serve your pasta primavera with focaccia or good sourdough bread and you have the perfect summer meal.

Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas
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Pasta Primavera with Asparagus & Peas

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4

servings

Adapted from NYT Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1/4 pound sugar snap peas, stems trimmed

  • 1/2 pound asparagus, woody ends trimmed

  • 2 tablespoons Earth Balance Buttery Sticks or unsalted butter

  • 3/4 cup frozen peas, defrosted

  • 1/4 cup thinly sliced shallot

  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

  • kosher salt

  • freshly ground black pepper

  • 10 ounces mafaldine, fettuccine, or tagliatelle

  • 2/3 cup finely grated Parmigiano Reggiano + more for serving

  • 1/2 cup warm half and half (I used Organic Valley Lactose Free)

  • 3 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley

  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon

Directions

  • Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
  • While the water is coming to a boil, slice snap peas and asparagus spears into 1/3-inch wide pieces; leave asparagus tips whole.
  • Melt Buttery Sticks or unsalted butter over medium-high heat. Add snap peas, asparagus, and shallots. Cook until vegetables are barely tender (not soft or mushy), about 3 minutes. Stir in peas and garlic and cook 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
  • Cook pasta until al dente. Drain pasta and transfer to the bowl with vegetables. Immediately toss pasta with vegetables, Parmigiano Reggiano, half and half, and herbs. Season generously with salt and pepper to taste. Grate extra cheese over the top before serving.
Dinner, Japanese, Lactose Free, Pasta, Pork, Recipes

Pork and Asparagus Soba

May 18, 2023

We’re starting to harvest our homegrown asparagus spears which is one of the reasons I was drawn to this recipe. The other reason is that I love soba. Though dried soba cannot compare to fresh, it works well enough for this dish which turns out to be a real winner.

There’s not much to it, in terms of the amount of ingredients called for. However, you may need to make a quick trip to the market if you don’t have tahini or chili crisp in your refrigerator. There is a multitude of chili crisp/crunch options available these days. You can find it at Costco, the Asian food section of your local markets, or online. My current favorite is Zindrew (from Amazon). Though the jar says chili oil, I consider it to be a chili crisp since it has lots of crunchy bits of garlic and does not contain an excess amount of oil.

Tahini adds a rich and creamy note to the sauce. Mixed with soy sauce, rice vinegar and chili crisp, the flavor is an umami rich seasoning for the noodles and pork.

The soba is cooked briefly before adding the asparagus. It’s a one pot deal. Not having to blanch the asparagus separately saves time and dishes.

The sauce is added to the cooked pork before getting mixed in with the soba and asparagus. It’s so delicious.

Everything goes back into the pot with some of the reserved soba cooking water. A quick stir to warm everything up and it’s ready to be served with extra chili crisp or sriracha.

Pork and Asparagus Soba
Print

Pork and Asparagus Soba

Recipe by Kiyo
Servings

4

servings

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup chili crisp (1/3 cup if you want it spicier) + more for serving

  • 1/3 cup tahini, well stirred

  • 3 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon soy sauced divided

  • 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

  • 9.5 ounces dried soba noodles (1 package Hakubaku soba, or about 10 ounces of your favorite dried soba)

  • 1 bunch (10-12 ounces) asparagus, trimmed, cut into 2-inch pieces (thinner spears work well in this dish)

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1 pound ground pork

  • Thinly sliced green onions (for serving)

  • Roasted sesame seeds (for serving)

Directions

  • Whisk chili crisp, tahini, 3 tablespoons soy sauce, and vinegar in a small bowl. Taste and add a few extra teaspoons of chili crisp if you want it spicier. Set aside.
  • Cook noodles in a large pot of boiling water for half the time noted on the package directions. For Hakubaku brand soba, cook for 1 1/2 minutes (no longer). Add asparagus to noodles and cook for 45-60 seconds. Reserve 1 cup of cooking liquid just before the 45-60 seconds is up, then immediately drain noodles and asparagus in a colander and run under cool water to stop the cooking; reserve pot.
  • Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook pork in an even layer undisturbed, until nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Continue to cook, stirring and breaking up with a wooden spoon, until cooked through, about 3 minutes (adjust heat as needed if too hot). Add reserved sauce and cook, scraping up browned bits, 1 minute.
  • Transfer pork, noodles, and asparagus to reserved pot. Drizzle a teaspoon of soy sauce (or a few pinches of kosher salt) plus 2/3 cup reserved cooking liquid into the pot and cook over medium heat, stirring gently with a spoon adding more cooking liquid if needed, until noodles and meat are warm and well coated with sauce but not watery, about 1 minute (leaving the soba on the heat much longer can cause the soba to be over cooked). Taste and adjust with more soy sauce or kosher salt if necessary.
  • Transfer pork and asparagus to a large, shallow serving bowl. Sprinkle with green onions and sesame seeds. Serve with extra chili crisp or sriracha.

Notes

  • If you want to make this for two people, use half of the soba, asparagus and cooking liquid called for. I recommend making the full recipe for the pork and reserving half for the next day. It’s delicious with ramen (the dried wavy type) cooked al dente and warmed in a bit of vegetable oil seasoned with soy sauce. Mix it all together to warm up and shower with lots of green onions, roasted sesame seeds and sriracha sauce. Serve with crunchy bok choy on the side.
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