Thursday, May 10, 2012

Springtime Pasta - Great Even in the Rain


One of the best things about living in Canada is the changing seasons.  And Spring is definitely my favorite time of year... everything starts to bloom.  The grey landscape of winter is replaced by green.  My favorite foods spring up (excuse the pun)...asparagus, fiddle heads, tender greens and herbs...
which made for a perfect Spring Pasta dish just in time for Presto Pasta Night hosted this time by Emma of Emma's Kitchen Diary.
I actually was planning a very different menu...skewers of lamb marinated in lemon juice, garlic, oil and rosemary - with a touch of Dijon mustard, but the weather was not playing along with that notion - lots of wind and rain.  Roasted tomatoes, asparagus & fiddleheads were supposed to accompany the lamb, so instead I decided on pasta.  


Since I have no time to write up a real recipe - I promise to do that soon... here it is in a nutshell...
Roasted vegetables - done at 400F/200C, tossed with olive oil and some pepper along with sprigs of fresh thyme and rosemary:
8oz box of sweet grape tomatoes  
10 spears of asparagus, tough part of the stems removed
1-2 handfuls of blanched fiddleheads (2 minutes in salted boiling water followed by 1 minute in a large bowl of ice water)
whole wheat penne


The vegetables only take about five minutes or so.  You want them tender but not mushy - except for the tomatoes.... I love them soft.


Drain the pasta, place the vegetables in the empty pasta pot with some olive oil plus whatever juices from the roasting pan and the juice and zest of one lemon.  I also added some fresh basil chiffonade (leaves rolled into the shape of a cigar and sliced thinly across) and more grindings of black pepper.  


It brought sunshine to the table if not to the outdoors.   And it's perfect to share with Emma for this week's Presto Pasta Night Roundup #263.   It's close, but you still have some time to share your pasta delights by emailing your recipe or link to emmaskitchendiary (at) gmail (dot) com and cc ruth (at) 4everykitchen (dot) com 


I'll be busy all day, so only writing about it tomorrow night.  Just keep checking Emma's Kitchen Diary to get your pasta fix for the weekend. 

3 comments:

Joanne said...

I love how this pasta is inspired by spring veggies! It's my favorite time of year as well.

Jacqueline Meldrum said...

Mmmmmmmmm, gorgeous Ruth. Now that is one great pasta dish. Think it may be time for luch as I am drooling over the keyboard :)

PC said...

mmmm i start wnt eat! :D