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Asparagus Pasta

Across Italy

Asparagus Pasta

Asparagus Pasta

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

40 min · Difficulty ●●○○○

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Dishes in this family

Each dish keeps its own guide; compare the ingredient and preparation differences here.

Orecchiette con le cime di rapaA Puglian home dish where orecchiette are tossed with a soffritto of anchovy and garlic and blanched cime di rapa (a bitter green similar to rapini). Styles diverge on whether the pasta is handmade or dried, whether breadcrumbs stand in for cheese to add crunch, and whether tomato paste is added for sweetness.Read this dish →Pasta primaveraPenne is paired with zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, tomatoes, and peas, then lightly bound with pecorino, lemon, and basil.Read this dish →Pasta with broccoliBroccoli is parboiled, most of it breaks down in garlic oil into a cream, and reserved florets return intact around fresh troccoli.Read this dish →Zucchini pastaWrung-out zucchini cooks with shallot for about 20 minutes, then joins spaghetti, pecorino, lemon, basil, and mint.Read this dish →Artichoke PastaMeatless fusilli with sliced and puréed artichokes, mint and black pepper.Read this dish →Pumpkin PastaFarfalle with diced pumpkin, pancetta and a portion blended with ricotta.Read this dish →Sweet Corn SpaghettiSpaghetti with most of the sweet corn blended into a cream and the remaining kernels kept for sweetness and texture.Read this dish →

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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.

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