Cuisine – Pasta with asparagus and spring flavours

Never have so many looked forward to the arrival of spring with more optimism. Our long, soggy year has been depressing, but where there’s a peep of sunshine, there’s hope. My particular mood-lifter of the moment is asparagus. Those first spears appear in a very expensive tight little bundle, but it is not long before they take pride of place in the stores and we can indulge of one of the last truly seasonal vegetables.

Despite its suggested origin in Asia and the Mediterranean, I always think of it being a very western vegie, perhaps influenced by my memories of spring market stalls in Paris, laden with bunches of fresh green asparagus, or eating fat white spears drenched in butter in the little back street bistros of that wonderful food city where I cooked in my early career. Now we have choices if we shop in good places, as our New Zealand growers produce purple, white and the more common green asparagus. White spears have a milder taste, the purple spears change to olive green when cooked, and the green are usually cheaper and simply delicious.

Try cutting asparagus spears paper-thin into long curly strips with a potato peeler to add to a salad or, if they are very fresh, slice the spears into very thin rounds and they will add a lot of crunch to your salads. But like many vegetables, serving them raw only works within one or two days of harvest, as the flavour is no longer as bright and they tend to become a little soft and floppy.
As the season advances, the stalks tend to become a little woody, so snap them off where they break easily and add those bits to a vegetable or chicken stock. When the spears are thick, I like to peel the ends for more even cooking. The heads can be rather fragile and do cook more quickly than the stalks, so it is worth the effort with the thicker spears to peel the ends.

When shopping for asparagus, you will find the freshest spears have tips that are tightly closed and not starting to turn into a more open, flower-like bud. The tips should be dark green, almost purple, with the lower part still bright green and clean. Some stores have started keeping the asparagus bunches upright in a tray of water and that’s a great idea to preserve freshness. Once you get your asparagus home, pop it into a vegetable storage bag in the refrigerator’s vegie drawer to keep it crisp.

Butter has a terrific affinity with asparagus and it is a real indulgence to whip up a buttery sauce to accompany the spears. If you’re into making hollandaise or bearnaise sauces, you will be truly rewarded, but dipping the spears into melted butter or a soft-boiled egg can be almost as good.
For this week’s recipe, I used the last of my perpetual spinach, which has decided to go to seed, as the little baby leaves are tender and delicious. Watercress would make a good substitute. I added Matakana Smokehouse hot smoked salmon to the dish, but vegetarians will enjoy this tasty pasta dish equally without it.

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Spring Pasta

(Make quick work of this recipe by doing all the preparation of the ingredients before you start cooking, and have the warmed plates ready to serve.)

300g dried linguine pasta
Small bunch tender young spinach leaves or watercress, washed well.
1 lemon, grated rind and juice
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed into bite-sized pieces
200g frozen baby peas
100 ml olive oil
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
Handful of young mint leaves
100g hot smoked salmon, broken in chunks
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra lemon wedges to garnish

Fill a large saucepan with salted water, add a teaspoonful of olive oil, and bring it to the boil. Add the linguine (or any other dried pasta) and cook according to the packet instructions, drain, return to the pan and toss in the remaining olive oil.

While the pasta is cooking, cook the peas in boiling salted water and add the asparagus to steam over the peas for about three to four minutes. Drain well and set aside.

Reheat the pasta very gently with just a couple of spoonfuls of water at the bottom of the pan, adding the spinach leaves so they just wilt. Add the peas and asparagus and toss well together with lemon juice and grated rind. Divide between two plates and top with the cheese, mint leaves and the salmon. Finally grind a little black pepper over and garnish with a wedge of lemon.
Serves 2 as a main course, but recipe can be doubled for 4 to 6 people.