White Asparagus Lemon Cream Pasta is a great way to welcome spring! A fresh and sunny dish filled with fresh white asparagus and a touch of parmesan.
Asparagus is one of the first veggie that want’s to come out in spring, both the green and white kind are actually the same, the only difference is that the white one never get to see the sun. They pick it up with the help of a sharp tool under the dirt directly preventing photosynthesis. The taste is softer and the texture also and if you peel it right you can even eat it raw.
Preparation
The main difference to its preparation is that unlike the green asparagus. You’ll need to peel its whole body (except the head) about twice because it’s covered with thick fibres which prevent the asparagus from getting tender when cooked. If it’s not peeled properly the asparagus will be difficult to eat because of all those fibres.
White asparagus are quite pricey so you’ll want to use every single bit of it. I suggest you clean your asparagus first and keep all the scraps from it; meaning the foot and all the peeled parts, you can easily make a great purée or soup with it later on. Unlike the green asparagus where you brake them to keep solely the tender part, with white ones you won’t need to do it this way. You’ll peel all that rough part out anyways and plus you don’t want to get rid of half the length for that price… right? So just cut about 2 or 3 cm max on the bottom of the asparagus then peel them until the skin feels tender. Sometime white asparagus are quite thick others thin so you’ll have to adjust the amount you peel off.
For highlighting the asparagus I’ve done a light creamy lemon fusilli to accompany it. A smooth and lightly flavored cream to highlight and enhance the delicate yet exquisite taste of the asparagus!
Let’s spring begin!
White Asparagus Lemon Cream Fusilli
Makes 2 portions | Preparation: 20 minutes | Difficulty: easy
Ingredients
- 420g of fresh white asparagus
- 400g of pasta of your choice
- 250ml of light cream
- zest of 1 lemon plus half its juice
- parmesan
- salt and pepper
Directions
- Start by cleaning then cutting the bottom of the asparagus and then peel them (check how above)
- Cut the bottom part at about 2 cm high and cut the rest of the asparagus into 3 or 4 to make small pieces
- Cook them in a big pot of boiling water (use the same water later on for the pasta) until cooked about 5-7 minutes (depending on the size of your asparagus)
- Take the asparagus out with a slotted spoon and reserve
- Use the same water and cook the fusilli in it (to your favorite consistency)
- Add the cream in a small sauce pan with the zest of a lemon, salt and pepper and cook it slowly until warm, it’s should not boil
- Add the white asparagus to the cream sauce to keep them warm
- Drain the pasta, put back in the big pot and add half the juice of the lemon and the cream sauce and mix
You can serve with a few shaved parmesan slices. Enjoy!
Yes, there is plenty of magic going on in a meatball, especial the colossal kind like this one. Here are five important points to succeed your mega meatballs:
Ingredients
500g ground pork and veal meat (could be beef also)
It finally turned out into a nice pasta “gratiné” mug meal with my 
dients
this season of rovello, I’ve came up with a pasta dish that would highlight the mushrooms. I’ve simply done the mushrooms the usual way; fried in the pan with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic and parsley. Than I’ve added the mushroom to a broccoli cream smooth pasta which won’t take the focus away from the mushrooms and fits perfectly to the meaty mushroom! If rovello are out of reach for you, simply use shiitakes or a nice earthy mushroom to replace it.
After a week of german recipes… it’s time to go back to an old good friend called Pasta. This pasta is ridiculously addictive, be aware. I have no idea if it’s the mix of texture or the mix of flavors that makes it so irresistible. It’s a terribly simple recipe too, also done under 20 minutes. If you already know vodka sauce you know it’s a pinky cream sauce colored by some tomatoes, usually a tomato paste, but this version I’ve simply used a few fresh cherry tomatoes. It’s called vodka sauce but really there isn’t much vodka in it and obviously it doesn’t really taste like it at all. The vodka here is used mainly as a stabilizer to the acidity of the tomato and the cream which would be impossible to mix without some type of alcohol in the sauce. The vodka could also be substitute by a white wine.
This recipe has some extra crunch on top, a nice slightly warmed up in the oven pieces of cured ham and sage leaves. Believe me, this mix is just a foretaste to heaven, any type of cream sauce gain so much from a crunchy cured ham. As for the sage, it’s such a great, strong and unique taste we see just too little of. It goes also to perfection with any cream sauces, and in this case… it’s no exception. The thick leaves of sage make it a bit chewy and unpleasant if eaten raw, so I always cook it a 3 minutes, in the pan or oven, with the cured ham to make it crispy. Then the magic happens and the leaves become like this extra tasty chips, that give a whole new dimension to the plate. If you are not used to sage flavor, I suggest you start with just a little, because it’s a quite powerful aromatic. I’m not kidding the taste gets exponentially stronger once cooked and the texture becomes a great crunchy one. A great complementary combination that is the sage and cured ham, especially on those creamy, smooth pasta.
500g pasta of your choice
Creamy avocado pesto zoodles is the new pasta (well…actually; non pasta) in town. I see them everywhere, for guys out there who didn’t catch the “zoodle” vibe, it’s actually zucchini noodles. There is absolutely no gluten, wheat in them and make a great meal for all, especially for low carb diet or gluten intolerant people. This was my first attempt to do those famous”zoodles”, no need to buy those big spiralizer machine to make them, simply use a cheese grater, it really does
the trick. It’s a terribly easy, fast and healthy recipe but also creamy and tasty, the avocado make the dish stand. It give the dish this rich creamy texture, which I believe, complete the dish to perfection.
3 zucchinis
Cut both ends of the zucchinis
and lime and blend until it becomes a paste, add a bit of water if too thick
Add the pesto to the zoodles and mix well
Calamari on an Ink Linguine with a spicy tomato sauce is a great way to spice up your next dinner. If you always wondered how those black ink pasta taste like but never got the guts to buy it and try it out, this recipe will make you buy them over and over again. Everyone is scared of those ink meals for some reason…I guess it’s the fact of eating what you usually write with, it just doesn’t quite belong in a plate. But I assure you, it’s quite the opposite. Since I’ve been living in Spain, they use the ink of cuttlefish for many of their traditional meals like squids croquetas in their ink, the arroz negro (black cuttlefish paella) or those black ink linguine. This recipe comes from my cooking school, well… we had to make the fresh ink linguine by ourself, so in this case, to keep it simple, I’ve just bought a pack of dry black pasta. This way the recipe takes about 20 minutes from start to finish.
The taste of ink might worry some of you, but it doesn’t feel anything like tarry, earthy or whatever you believe your pen tastes like… no.. it tastes like a salty mineral water, or to be more precise it tastes like the sea. Although, making yourself the pasta with the fresh ink makes the sea factor more present, if you are comfortable with making your own fresh pasta, you definitely should make it for this recipe and add a tbsp of squid ink to your mix.
For this recipe, I’ve used pre cleaned frozen squids, no need to defrost them either, when they are frozen and hard, they are way easier to cut with the mandoline into fine rings. Once cut, let 10 minutes pass and you’ll see; how fast those magically defrost. Finish it up by simply drying them up with a paper towel and they are ready to fry. Frozen squid is super tender when fried quickly at high heat. The muscles fibres in the calamar break down when they are frosted which leave their meat super tender, the trick here is to fry them fast and hard in olive oil for about 3-4 minutes, if you over cook them, it’s when they will get chewy… If this happens, you can always save them back, by letting them cook slowly (let say in this case into the tomato sauce) until they become tender again, for about 10-15 minutes.
I’ve used the most popular “spicy” dried pepper from Spain called “Guindilla” which is used to make the spicy paprika. It is still a fairly moderate spicy pepper, which won’t overwhelmed the sauce. Those peppers give some of the most iconic Spanish recipes like the gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimps), the bacalao al pil pil (cod emulsified in spicy olive oil) or even the popular Basques pintxo (tapa) called Gilda (a pickled guindilla, anchovy and olive tapa). If you do not find those precise peppers at home, simply chose a mildly spicy pepper or a touch of cayenne pepper to spice up your tomato sauce. Also, another aromatic for the tomato sauce is a single fresh basil leave, which you add at the end of coccion to give the tomato sauce an extra aroma. You’ll have to discard it before serving.
Start by cutting the frozen squid with the mandoline 5mm cut, let the rings unfreeze on a paper towel
Add the tomato purée, sugar, salt and pepper and let is simmer 5 minutes
Chorizo isn’t a spicy “hot” sausage, it’s a paprika sausage which can be softly spicy, sweet or smoked. I’ve used a smoky paprika chorizo for this dish. Those sausage are everywhere here in Spain, but depending where you are, I guess it might be harder to find those 3 types of chorizo sausages. If you want to reproduce the smokey effect with standard sausages, you can add some smoked paprika (pimenton de la Vera) to the sauce, then you’ll recreate this magnetic smokey flavour. Be careful with this smoked paprika, it’s quite powerful, a single tablespoon should do the trick.
300g of pasta of your choice
2 zucchinis grated
push down the pulp with a spatula to get rid of all the juice, keep the zucchini water for the tomato sauce (reducing it by half before adding your favorite tomato sauce to it) or discard
them)
them with sauce
Flamed scallops on quinoa fusilli is a nice light meal to start the summer. This dish is filled with slightly cooked bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, lime zest and fresh basil leaves. The sauce is mainly a little butter in which the scallops seared in before getting flamed and caramelized with an orange flavored cognac/brandy (Grand Marnier). A divine dish, and so simple to make.
Where I come from, the east part of Canada, scallops are pretty common in our plates. Although, since I’ve been living in Spain, it got quite difficult to find any and when I finally do, they cost so much… So I go to the freezer shop… yes only frozen stuff of all kinds shop, and get my patagonian mini scallops once in awhile. Strange… that in Spain, a seafood lover country, it’s so hard to find any. Although in the West part of Spain, Galicia, they do a meal with scallops in breadcrumbs, ham and onions which sound delicious.
Ingredients
Add the Cognac/Brandy and flame the scallops (turn off your fan before flaming)