Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Asparagus Pasta

Asparagus is a healthy vegetable that I am slowly trying to incorporate into my cooking these days. I've always loved it as an accompaniment with fish or chicken at restaurants and always look for ways to include veggies in my daughter's pasta..even though she filters them out most of the times :)
Ingredients:
Penne Pasta - 8oz
Asparagus - 10 nos
Red Onions/shallots, diced - 1/2 medium
Garlic, finely chopped - 5 cloves
Broccoli, frozen - 1/2 cup
Green Peas, frozen - 1/2 cup
Cherry tomatoes - 1/2 cup
Chicken/Vegetable broth - 3/4 cup
Parmesan, shredded - 1/4 cup
Mozzarella, shredded - 1/4 cup
Lemon juice - 1 Tbsp
Pepper - 1/4 tsp
Crushed red pepper - 1 tsp
Olive Oil - 2 Tbsp
Method:
  1. Cook pasta in enough boiling water for about 8-10 minutes until it's cooked al dente.
  2. Cut asparagus into 1 1/2 inch pieces. tomatoes in half, and broccoli into florets if you are using an entire bunch.
  3. Heat olive oil in a pan and add onions and garlic and sauté until the onions turn pink. 
  4. Add asparagus, broccoli, salt and pepper and saute until they are cooked through.
  5. Add the peas, tomatoes, chicken broth, lemon juice. Add the drained pasta.
  6. Mix in the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses and crushed pepper and adjust salt to taste and cook for a few minutes until the cheeses melt and forms a guey sauce.
Cooking pasta al dente (means "to the bite") will help the pasta absorb all the sauces and the flavor better while cooking in it for a few minutes. I did not have cherry tomatoes so I used 1 roma tomato instead. If you dont have the specific cheeses try with ones you have..If you want the pasta to have more sauce, you can add a little bit of milk or cream. Also, I roasted the leftover asparagus in the same pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper for a nice side vegetable :)

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