Pasta Primavera

"Pasta with spring vegetables and cream" is, when you get down to it, basically pasta alfredo with vegetables simmered into the sauce. Those vegetables make a huge difference, though!

This recipe comes from the Classic Pasta Cookbook, slightly modified; I don't pre-boil the asparagus and have adjusted the vegetable quantities somewhat to reduce the number of fractional vegetables it generates. It will happily take a great deal of variation, though; if you don't have some of the veggies you can just turn up the dial on the others or swap in something else you like, if you want it more saucy you can increase all the vegetables (or just your favourite) and add more cream and butter. For a recent batch we dropped the zucchini (not having any) and used 5mL celery seeds in place of the celery, but cranked up the asparagus and onion dramatically.

Fettucini is traditional for this, but I find I actually prefer it with more "lumpy" pasta like penne or radiatori; it makes it easier to get some pasta and some veggies in each bite.

In a pinch you can make this with mixed frozen vegetables, but it's not nearly as good. Nor does it reheat well; it's best if you can eat it all the day it's cooked.

Ingredients (for 450g dried store-bought pasta)

• 60mL butter
• 1 medium-sized yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 celery spear, finely sliced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 red or yellow bell pepper, finely diced
• ½ a zucchini, finely diced (about 192mL?)
• 125g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1cm lengths
• 250mL heavy cream
• 125mL freshly grated parmesan

Procedure

1. Melt the butter in a large, deep skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onions and sautee until translucent and golden.
3. Add the celery and carrot and sautee for another ~5 minutes.
4. Add the bell pepper and zucchini and continue to sautee until tender, 10-20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add the asparagus and sautee for another minute or two so that it just starts to soften.
6. Add the cream. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the cream has reduced by half, then remove from the heat until the pasta is ready.
7. When the pasta is cooked al dente, toss it with the sauce and the cheese.