So our week of gorgeous meat free Italian recipes has come to and end, I can not remember what we have planned for this week apart from that I know tonights dinner is Milanese Di Pollo, a family favourite and one of Hubby’s specials. Hubby loves to cook and he is extremely good at it, he says its away to relax after a day at work. After last weeks recipes we found that he has another string to his bow and that is he makes the most amazing fresh pasta. With a little help from Olly holding the pasta machine these two have made the most gorgeous, most tasty pasta that I have ever had.
This recipe has to be one of the best of the week, Hubby said that the dough was not as nice or as easy to handle as the ones made using the Nonna’s recipes but the texture and taste was amazing. The advantage we found with fresh pasta is that it is far more porous and really takes on what ever sauce you are adding to it. If you are using brought dried or fresh pasta this dish is so quick and simple.
I loved this recipe because it was so light and fresh tasting, again it felt wholesome and like it was nurturing your body as you ate it. I think that this would be a fabulous Spring dish, you could add any fresh green vegetables that are in season or even better fresh from your own garden and use any herbs that you have laying around. I think that fresh Spring peas, soya beans or broad beans peeled from there pods would be a great addition to this dish.I always say this, but make the dish your own and play around with it to suit your own taste and to what ingredients that you have to hand.
In Italy they use wild asparagus, hence this dishes Italian name ‘al bosco’, so as we are not so lucky to be able to just pop out into the countryside and find wild asparagus use the thinnest stalks that you can find.
At the moment the sun is out, I have spent hours cleaning, washing and ironing, I also need to sit in the office and get some work done, but I think now I will take the dog out for a nice long walk before the next lot of rain comes, so I hope you all enjoy this recipe and have a fabulous day.
Buon appetito
Serve 6
675g thin asparagus stalks, tough ends trimmed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
250ml double cream
4 garlic cloves, peeled, 3 whole and 1 chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
50g butter
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh herbs (basil, mint, parsley, oregano, dill)
250g tagliarini or tagliatelle
120g Parmesan, freshly grated
Cut the stalks into 2 cm slices at an angle. Blanch the stalks in boiling salted water for 1 minute. Blanch the tips for seconds only. Drain well.
Bring the cream to the boil in large saucepan with the whole garlic cloves and simmer until the cloves are soft. Remove from the heat, and discard the garlic.
Heat the oil and butter in a separate saucepan and fry the remaining garlic until light brown. Add the herbs and stalks, and cook briefly just to coat them in the butter and oil, then pour in the flavoured cream. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the cream begins to thicken, about 6 minutes. Season.
Cook the pasta in a generous amount of boiling salted water, then drain thoroughly.
Add to the sauce (remember, always pasta to the sauce, never the other way around) along with about half of the Parmesan and the asparagus tips.
Serve with the remaining Parmesan.
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