This Creamy Vegetarian Pasta is Perfect for All the Lovely Asparagus in Season
By Joy Gordon Stewart
Twenty years ago now I had the distinct pleasure of dining at Postrio, Wolfgang Puck’s San Francisco restaurant. It still gives me shivers to recall how delicious his wild mushroom ravioli with pencil asparagus and morel mushrooms in a lemon cream sauce was. For two decades I have been dreaming of this bright fresh sauce, with tender handmade pasta, accompanied by the chewy, earthy morels and equally tender and lightly herbaceous baby asparagus. For the 12th issue of the magazine, I wanted to do something special. I chose a theme that is near and dear to my heart: the Farmer’s Market. Some of my favorite meals have involved a few high quality ingredients allowed to shine through a simple preparation. I’ve asked my contributors to share dishes that are inspired by a particularly fresh and lovely vegetable. This month that vegetable is asparagus. It is a lovely vegetable,fresh, and slightly herbaceous with just a hint of grit and bitterness and absolutely redolent of new spring growth. That is why it is the perfect main ingredient for our Farmer's Market theme. Although I haven’t gone to nearly as much effort as the dish that inspired this recipe, I have none-the-less used what approximate the same flavors and ingredients. I made my own pasta, using this recipe from Gimme Some Oven. I used all semolina, but next time I’ll go 50/50 with AP flour, as it was slightly gritty. I rolled it out by hand, thin enough that I could see light through it and cut it using a measuring spoon handle as a width guide. Check out the post I linked for some great pictures on how to easily cut rolled out pasta to uniform length. If you don’t want to take the time or are intimidated by the thought (it’s really easy--you cannot knead it too much and you can make it in the food processor as well as the stand mixer; just remember to let it rest at least 30 minutes wrapped in cling film and roll it out very very thinly) you can also easily get fresh made pasta at the supermarket. If that doesn’t fit into your budget try to go for a fancier hollow extruded noodle, such as cellentani or campanelle; something that can absorb a lovely cream sauce into its crevices.
How long to cook the asparagus will depend upon how thin the stalks are. If you can find pencil or baby asparagus, which are very thin, you will not need more than a minute. The thicker the stalks the longer they will need to cook.
Pappardelle with Wild Mushrooms & Pencil Asparagus in Lemon Cream Sauce
Serves 4
10 ounces assorted mushrooms, chopped
10 ounces pencil asparagus, trimmed and chopped into 1” pieces
12 ounces fresh pappardelle pasta (or other wide noodle)
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup wine
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter
1/2 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt
Pepper
Method:
Put up a large pot of heavily salted boiling water. Boil the pasta in the salted water for around 7 minutes (if your pasta is store bought, cook it for the length of time indicated on the package). While the pasta is boiling, melt butter and combine with olive oil in a heavy bottomed pan. With a small pinch of salt and a sprinkle of pepper, saute onions over medium heat until they begin to soften. Add mushrooms and cook until the liquid from the mushrooms has just evaporated (5-7 minutes). If you can only find very wide asparagus (about the width of a wooden cooking spoon handle), they will need up to five minutes to saute with the mushrooms, so add them early (the goal is for both to be cooked according to your preference at the same time); if they are thinner, they will need to be added later. Once the asparagus is cooked and the mushroom liquid has dissolved, add the wine to deglaze. Scrape the lovely caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan. Scoop out the veggies and set aside. Add cream and lemon zest to the pan and turn the heat down to low. For 5 minutes, barely simmer the cream. Meanwhile, the pasta will have finished cooking. Drain pasta, reserving one cup of pasta water. Add veggies to the cream sauce and then mix sauce with pasta. Add 1/3 cup pasta water as you mix, to help the sauce cling to the pasta. Serve garnished with minced Italian parsley.
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