It's still here: pasta with asparagus sauce

One of the things that you can never really predict, is what Mother Nature is going to do, and how it will impact agriculture. NY has had a very warm early spring and early summer (I guess it's officially summer. I'm waiting for tomatoes, though), and everything came out early. When that happens, I expect things to end early too, so I assumed that, by the time that we came back from our SF jaunt at the beginning of June, asparagus would be gone.

Not quite. As Mr. Sondheim wrote it, "They're still here." There aren't a lot of them, but they're here. And as long as they are, I'll be cookin' and eatin them.

I had picked up a few bunches of them at the market, and was planning to do one of my usuals: steam em, or grill em, and then there was this recipe in a book I'm reading: "I loved, I lost, I made spaghetti." Yes, Annalena reads popular culture , especially if there are recipes in the culture being read. There are plenty here. This is my take on one of her recipes.

You can change things here. I will make some suggestions, but feel free to improvise. I am sure that Ms. Melucci, fine Italian cook that she is, will tell you to do the same. Here goes.

The recipe called for dried angel hair spaghetti, and by all means, use that if you have it. I used fresh spinach linguine which, in retrospect, was not the best choice in the world. Angel hair does seem to have an affinity for asparagus. And you can have a very quick dish. If you use the angelhair, or fresh pasta, make the sauce first, because your pasta is going to cook REAL quick. You want about half a pound.

TO the sauce: first, prep your asparagus. Here, you want thin ones, a pound. Again, our author discusses the technique of just snapping them because they will break at the appropriate point. She's right. Do that, and then cut the piece that has the tip left on it, into pieces about an inch long. Save the tougher parts to make vegetable broth (easy to do). To make the sauce itself, put two tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, and then add a couple of cloves of peeled, sliced garlic and a bit of red pepper flakes into it. You just want to do some warming here, not thorough cooking. If the garlic gets too colored, the asparagus flavor will be lost. Also add a half teaspoon of salt.

Put the asparagus in with the rest of the stuff, and cook it, at medium heat. Here, Ms. Melucci and I differ. She calls for five minutes. If that were all the cooking you were going to do, I'd agree. But there's more to come. So I would say, two minutes, MAX. Then add about a third of a cup of white wine. (I differ here, too, as Ms. Melucci calls for half a cup. I think that's too much). Bring it to a boil, and cook the thing for about another four minutes .

Need I say that, at this point you should be bringing your pasta water to a boil? Well...

Your sauce is pretty much done when you finish that four minutes of cooking, and when the pasta is done to your liking, toss it into the sauce, and mix it all together. You can stop here, if you like and have a vegan dish. I agree with the author's choice to add cheese, however. She adds pecorino romano. That is terrific with this dish, but there are other cheeses. Fontina has a natural affinity with asparagus. So, too, does ricotta. And... cream? Perche non? Use any of these dairy items, and feel free to tell me what you did. Finally, taste this because I betcha you'll want more salt in the dish.

You should think of this recipe as "license" to play with other, quick cooking vegetables. Fava beans? Yes. Peas? Absolutely. You can go on and on with this, and again, while the veggies are fresh and delicious, you must. It's not a should.

And if you can find asparagus, keep on working with them. They will be gone at some point.