This lemon asparagus pasta is the perfect springtime dish, made with thinly sliced asparagus and sweet bright meyer lemons.
It may still be somewhat chilly outside, but there’s no doubt that spring is on its way, and fast. And whenever the weather starts to change like this, I immediately start craving the food of the new season, like apple desserts in September and hearty stews and braised meats in November. When the first buds of spring flowers start appearing, I start to crave bright, fresh food; lemon, fresh veggies, and just about anything green. And this lemon asparagus pasta is not only incredibly delicious, but it’s the epitome of those flavors; bright, zesty lemon and sweet and mildly grassy asparagus (which is also seasonal in spring!) come together for a pasta that’s perfectly balanced in springtime flavors.
This lemon asparagus pasta is inspired by one of our favorite restaurants in Queens, Rolo’s. I’ve actually made another recipe, my garlic and rosemary polenta bread, inspired by them, because their food is just so good that every time we go we come home wanting to recreate their dishes. This lemon asparagus pasta comes from their spring/summer menu, and the first time my sister-in-law Julie had it, she fell in love. So when her birthday rolled around a few weeks ago (I made her bacon egg and cheese sandwiches on these homemade sandwich rolls in celebration), my brother Ben knew that he wanted to recreate this sweet, tart and savory pasta as a treat for her.
LEMON ASPARAGUS PASTA MADE EASY
This lemon asparagus pasta may look and feel fancy, but it’s actually a super easy dish to make. In order to make it special, Ben made fresh pasta (see our pasta fiasco below), but you can use any good quality dried pasta you like. We made the sauce super simply with meyer lemon juice, butter, and a lemon zest infused olive oil (it sounds fancy, but its super easy to make). Myer lemons are sweeter and less acidic than regular lemons, giving this dish some extra sweetness to play off the salty Parmigianino Reggiano that you’ll use to top it. If you can’t find meyer lemons, you can use regular lemons with a touch of sugar. But they really do make this dish special, so try to find them if you can.
The asparagus in this pasta also gets a simple but very delicious treatment. Ben cut off the woody ends (and discarded them) and the heads of the asparagus. He then shaved the spears into super thin slices using a vegetable peeler and flash cooked them. Not only does this make the asparagus the same size and shape as the noodles, but it makes them super tender and brings out their natural sweetness. He tossed the asparagus heads with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted them. They became slightly charred and crispy, the perfect garnish to offset the sweet pasta.
A SLIGHT PASTA FIASCO
Ben recreated this lemon asparagus pasta with a homemade spinach pasta, just to drive home those fresh springtime flavors. My recipe below will show that you can use any pasta you like, but if you did want to try making fresh pasta for this recipe, you can use my great grandma’s fresh pasta recipe.
We did have a little bit of a fiasco when making this pasta. Ben wanted to try to make this pasta as thin and light as possible. So much like he did when making his many layer lasagna, he rolled out the pasta dough to the thinnest setting on the roller. While perfect for making lasagna, where the noodles don’t have to be cooked before layering, boiling these uber-thin noodles proved to be very difficult. They basically came out as a lump of mushed pasta noodles. We ended up making it work by boiling them for only 30 seconds, but if your thinking of making fresh pasta for this recipe, just roll it out to a 4 or 5 thinness, and don’t try to go super thin like Ben did.
Even though we eventually got the fresh pasta situation under control, this sauce was still incredibly delicious even when served on a mush of pasta noodles. After all, it’s the taste that really matters. So if you’re anything like me, and craving bright fresh flavors as the season starts to turn, this lemon asparagus pasta is most definitely one to try.
Lemon Asparagus Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb pasta of choice (I would go with a noodle)
- 1 bunch asparagus
- 4 lemons (meyer lemons if you can find them, if not you'll need 1 tsp of sugar)
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt, to taste
- Parmigianino Reggiano, for seving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 and bring a large pot of well salted water to a boil.
- Clean the lemons well, then use a vegetable peeler to peel just the yellow skin (doing your best to avoid the white pith). Set the peels aside and then juice the lemons; you will need about 1/4 cup lemon juice. If you can't find meyer lemons, add 1 tsp of sugar to the lemon juice and stir to dissolve.
- Make the lemon infused olive oil. Add the lemon peels to 1/2 cup olive oil and heat over low until simmering. Once simmering, remove from the heat and set aside to infuse for at least 15 minutes, but this step can be done a few days ahead for maximum lemon flavor. Once cooled, remove the lemon peels.
- Cut the woody ends off the asparagus and discard. Trim the heads off the asparagus and set aside. Then use a vegetable peeler to peel the asparagus into long, thin strips.
- Toss the asparagus heads with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast until softened and slightly charred, 15 minutes.
- Using a slotted spoon or colander with a handle, flash cook the shaved asparagus by dipping it into the boiling water and cooking for about 30 seconds. Immediately place in an ice bath to stop the cooking, then shake dry and toss with olive oil and salt.
- Add the pasta to the boiling water and cook to al dente (anywhere from 3-10 minutes, depending on the pasta).
- Strain your pasta and immediately toss with the lemon juice, lemon infused olive oil, butter (the butter will melt with the heat of the pasta), and cooked asparagus strips. Taste and season with salt as needed.
- Serve the pasta topped with the roasted asparagus heads and lots of Parmigianino Reggiano.
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