What a wonderful way to celebrate Easter and springtime! Springy colors and springy veggies!
so fresh and colorful!
This pasta dish is a wonderful combination of springtime veggies: carrots, chervil, shallots and of course asparagus! Asparagus time is upon us and I love trying dishes that use it. I love it roasted, sauteed, blanched, you name it. It’s all over the grocery stores and it’s cheap and good for us!
Chervil is a delicate herb that first appears in springtime, but dies out quickly at any hint of summer heat. It is a relative of parsley, but contains mellow flavors of liquorice or aniseed. If you don’t have any at your disposal, parsley stands in nicely.
The original dish calls for spaghetti, but I love using bowtie pasta for lunches. Spaghetti seems more like a dinner pasta; more formal somehow.
The unique thing, and what brings the biggest flavor profile, is a green olive paste. You can buy it already made at the store, but you can also grind up good quality olives in a food processor at home. It brought a nice salty texture to the delicate sauce of the dish. For Easter lunch I doubled the amount of pasta and asparagus, so the green olive sauce didn’t really show up too well, but it tasted wonderful.
If you can get your hands on some whole wheat bowtie pasta, go right ahead. Sadly, my grocery store was out.
Asparagus Pasta in Green Olive-Chervil Sauce
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 large lemon, zested
1/2 cup white wine
1/4 cup green olive paste
8 oz whole wheat spaghetti or bowtie pasta
1 lb fresh asparagus, trimmed and sliced
1 large carrot, shredded
1 cup fresh chervil or parsley, finely chopped
1/2 tsp salt
fresh cracked pepper
1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. In a large frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the shallot and garlic and saute until they are softened. Add the lemon zest and cook for a few seconds, stirring. Add the wine and raise the heat to high to reduce the sauce to a syrupy consistency. Add the olive paste and turn off the heat.
2. Cook the pasta in the boiling water according to the package directions. Add the asparagus and carrots for the last 4 minutes. Drain well but do not rinse; the starch will thicken the sauce a tiny bit.
3. Dump the hot pasta into the sauce, add the chervil and salt, season with pepper, and toss well. Serve hot.
Big Vegan Affair 