It’s finally asparagus season, darlings! I was beyond thrilled to find some perky green stems cheerily stacked next to each other like little soldiers at the farmstand during my last visit. A sight of spring at last, defiant of the freshly fallen snow outside. And as said snow was storming, a bowl of steamy pasta felt just about right for dinner. I looked through the fridge for an accompaniment to my asparagus, to find some stout little leeks and a half a bag of gorgeous spinach that I’d also picked up at the farmstand. Perfetto!
In a large saucepan, over medium low heat, I melted enough butter to make Julia Child proud, whilst I washed my leeks by chopping off the ratty ends, slicing lengthwise down the center and running them under cold water to get all the grit out (you can also achieve this by cutting the leek, then washing it in a salad spinner). I did the same thing for the green garlic, then tossed the lot into the melting butter with a generous pinch of salt.
Those hung out and sweated over medium heat until they were wilted and a little sticky, about 10 minutes, and stirred fairly regularly. In the meanwhile, I washed and chopped half the bunch of asparagus into about 2 cm thick pieces. Those went into the pan with the leeks and, after a minute or so, the washed and chopped spinach joined them. I also grated the zest of a lemon over the lot and let everything slowly cook and turn a vibrant green.
I forgot to mention that before I started the leeks, I made my bucatini (and Eric’s GF rotini) in large pots of boiling and salted water. Basically, this sauce takes as long as the pasta to cook, so roughly 15-20 minutes from start to finish.
Once the veg was a bright green, I added a few ladles of pasta water, a bit at a time, just to create a sauce. The starchy water emulsifies with the butter and I always add a little knob of fresh butter just to help it along. Once the sauce was bubbling away and the pasta was al dente, I added a little knob of butter to the sauce to let it finish cooking. Once I liked the texture, I grated some fresh Parmigiana Reggiano over the top, gave it a couple of tosses to incorporate, and voilà! A beautiful bucatini with all sorts of springy green things. It tasted fresh and light (in spite of the butter) while still offering enough warmth to heat my chilly bones.
Enjoy, Polpette!
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