Creamy Asparagus Pasta

There are some days when you are tired, lazy, or whatever you want to call it. I had one of those days a few weeks ago watching cooking reels on my phone. I came across an Italian Chef named  Luca Pontanarosa. He owns a restaurant called Ristorante Corleone in Point Saint Lucie, Florida. One of his recipes got my attention. He called it: paccheri with cream of asparagus and burrata cheese with crispy speck. Paccheri is a large rigatoni-like pasta. I used a smaller tube pasta  and hickory-smoked bacon instead of Speck. I wish I had had Speck, but it’s not readily available. 

It turned out to be a delicious creamy pasta that will have a permanent place on my table. The combination of asparagus with burrata, basil, and parmesan cheese is amazing. It is rich and full of flavor. The bacon adds a lot, so I wouldn’t skip it. My husband calls this the Italian version of macaroni and cheese. He suggests the following wine pairing: a crisp white Bordeaux and a tantalizing pinot from Burgundy. Sorry, he prefers French wines. 

I used my Vitamix because I wanted a smooth sauce. I don’t like to have any stringy asparagus pieces in my sauce (a personal preference).  A blender would do the same thing. The original sauce looked more chunky. 

 We invited some friends and my husband grilled his famous rack of lamb. I made my tomatoes stuffed with zucchini and button mushrooms. Most of the time, I use shiitake mushrooms with this recipe, but the button mushrooms were just as good. Here is a link to the recipe. It was a delicious meal. 

This  pasta dish is the perfect comfort food and vegetable haters will eat some of the green stuff. I am thrilled to have found this recipe. The amount of pasta is up to you. If you want more sauce, cook less noodles. Add pasta water if you want a thinner sauce. This dish feeds 4-6 people comfortably, depending on individual appetites or what it is served with it. 

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

¾ lb. tube pasta 
1 lb. green asparagus
1 large burrata cheese piece
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
⅓ cup basil leaves , sliced 
4 strips hickory-smoked bacon
3 TBS butter
2 TBS  or more olive oil 
1 cup or more hot pasta water
Salt and pepper 

Directions:

Put on some Big Night Italian music and heat up the pasta water. Add 1 TBS of salt to the pasta water.
Cut off the tips of the asparagus and put them aside. Break up the woody end of the asparagus and discard. Slice the asparagus stems in 1-inch pieces. Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan with a lid. Add the asparagus and sauté for a few minutes.  Add 1 cup pasta water and simmer covered for 20 minutes. Most of the liquid will evaporate after 20 minutes. While the asparagus is cooking, grate the parmesan cheese. I use a micro plane. Put the bacon in a cold frying pan and sauté until crispy. Discard most of the bacon fat and sauté the asparagus tips in the pan. Break the bacon into little pieces and restrain yourself from eating too many. 
Put the asparagus pieces, the burrata and parmesan cheese, the basil leaves, salt and pepper into a Vitamix or blender. Start with the lowest setting and then increase to more until the sauce is smooth. Taste the sauce, add salt and pepper, some more pasta water and a shot of olive oil. You want a thick and smooth sauce. In the meantime, cook the pasta according to the instructions on the bag. Taste for doneness. Mix the drained pasta with the sauce. Add the asparagus tips and bacon. Taste for seasoning and add more pasta water if necessary.  

Buon Appetito!
Recipe by Luca Pontarosa
Cooked by © Sunnycovechef 
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