paccheri in salsa di asparagi, pecorino e limone
paccheri in asparagus, pecorino and lemon sauce
For asparagus lovers, this could be the best all-round basic sauce to combine with other ingredients. You could almost add the meat / fish of your choice to this sauce and it’ll lift the basic recipe to dinner-party-wow levels. When I cooked the pasta on this page, I served it hot, straight out of the pan, but, as I discovered when I tasted some leftovers the day after, it’s actually much, much better as a chilled pasta dish. Just go easy on the lemon for the cold version and consider adding some seafood for a regal, hot weather show-stopper.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)
prepare the asparagus
cook the asparagus and blend
cook the asparagus tips
boil and cook the pasta
grate some lemon zest
combine sauce, tips and pasta
paccheri in asparagus, pecorino and lemon sauce
INGREDIENTS
FOR FOUR PEOPLE
750g fresh asparagus
pecorino, to taste
white wine, to taste
EVO, to taste
butter, to taste
x1 large garlic clove
a handful of basil leaves
PASTA
500g dry paccheri
/ rigatoni / pennoni
MANTECATURA (?)
light to heavy
METHOD
To start, cut the tips (about 50mm) off each asparagus spear and set aside. Cut the rest of the spears into approx 8mm sections. Work your way down each spear towards the woody end and as soon as your knife begins to struggle, stop and discard the rest of the spear. Crush a couple of peeled garlic coves with a knife and throw them into yoru sauce wok with some EVO and the smaller discs of asparagus. Add a splash of white or rose wine to taste, salt and pepper, and cook on a medium heat until the aspargus has become tender (but NOT begun to lose its bright green colour or fall apart). We want to keep bright colour, so if that means stopping when it’s still a little al dente, do it. Set it aside and allow to cool, while you put the pasta water on to boil and grate the cheese.
Now a word about paccheri. They’re big tubes of pasta that go well with many sauces, especially those that benefit from heavy mantecatura. This is because the longer cooking time that most varieties need creates a really starchy cooking water, which, as you already know, is exactly what you need for the mantecatura of a really velvety sauce. But the longer cooking times need to be allowed for (the claimed 13 mins on my pack turned out to be closer to 18 mins before we got to al dente) - and also be aware that overdoing mantecatura gets you into stodgy, baby-food territory. As ever, the trick is getting it just right.
Once your cooked discs of asparagus have cooled, put them in a blender with five or six basil leaves and a couple of handfuls of pecorino. Add salt and pepper and more pecorino to taste as you pulse-blend. If you need to loosen the mix up a bit, use very small amounts of starchy cooking water from the pasta. Aim for an obviously cheesy sauce base but without losing the main taste of asparagus.
Very approximately, I’d suggest cooking the tips of your asparagus spears after about 10 mins or so of the pasta going into the water. Cook it in exactly the same way as you did the small discs of spears that you did earlier. Taste and test from time to time so that you don’t overcook - however you don’t want any crunch in them at all, just a little hint of resistance when you night into them. If they’re floppy enough to do what the spear in the picture is doing, without losing their bright green colouring, you’ve done it right. Don’t overcook them so they go khaki coloured. Set them aside.
I’ve said that you could give this pasta almost any kind of matecatura, from light to heavy. If you are edging towards the ‘creamy’ (a.k.a. wallpaper-paste) end, take your pasta out of the cooking water while it’s a little firmer, add it to the sauce pan with a ladle of cooking water and your blended sauce, and allow it to finish cooking there, as your stir and toss.
If you want a less stodgy sauce, cook the pasta for longer before transferring it to the sauce wok to combine with the sauce. When you’re happy that the pasta is cooked and the sauce is to your liking, throw in the asparagus tips, toss, and plate each portion. Grate a tiny amount of lemon zest and sprinkle more cheese onto each portion.
NUTRITION per serving
KCAL: 588
Fat (g): 10.3
Sat Fat (g): 4.0
Carb (g): 90.3
Sug (g): 8.0
Fibre(g): 6.7
Prot (g): 26.4
Salt (g): 0.66
Nutritional information is provided as an indication only of approximate values for the recipe on this page. You should make your own calculations if you have specific dietry requirements or are required to follow a strict calorie-controlled diet.
