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Asparagus Pasta

Across Italy · No.92 / 103

Asparagus Pasta

Asparagus Pasta

Fusilli with softened sliced stalks as the cream and tips added late for texture.

40 min · Difficulty ●●○○○

Meet the dish

An Italian home pasta centred on spring asparagus

Snap off woody ends, peel the stalks and slice them thinly, keeping the tips separate. Covered cooking for ten minutes lets some stalk slices break down into a natural cream. Add the tips for only the last two to three minutes, then finish the fusilli off the heat with Grana, olive oil and pepper.

Pasta shapes to use

  • fusilli

Key ingredients

  • asparagus
  • garlic
  • Grana Padano
  • olive oil
  • black pepper

Follow the cooking scenes

  1. Asparagus Pasta: slicing asparagus stalks and halving tips.

    Step 1: Separate stalks and tips

    Discard woody ends, thinly slice stalks and halve large tips lengthwise.

  2. Simmering only thin round asparagus stalk slices in garlic oil and a little liquid under a lid

    Step 2: Soften the stalks

    Cover and cook stalks in garlic oil for ten minutes, adding pasta water as needed.

  3. Asparagus Pasta: adding asparagus tips to the skillet.

    Step 3: Add tips late

    Add the tips for only another two to three minutes.

  4. Asparagus Pasta: emulsifying fusilli with Grana and olive oil off the heat.

    Step 4: Emulsify off the heat

    Add fusilli, stop the heat and mix in Grana and fresh olive oil.

What to watch for

  • Do not cook tips from the start; preserve their colour and bite.
  • Let some thin stalk slices collapse for body without a blender.

What sets it apart

This is not asparagus pesto: softened stalks form the sauce while the tips remain distinct.

Gear and ingredients for this dish

Purchase suggestions for preparing this dish, including tools and ingredients.