Ingredients
16 oz pasta
3 leeks
7-10 asparagus spears
1 c peas
4 tsp minced garlic
5 c vegetable broth
2 tblsp mint
2 tblsp chives
2 tblsp lemon juice
1/2 c parmesan
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 c white wine
6 tblsp olive oil
salt
1/4 tsp black pepper (more, if you want)
Directions
- Bring broth to a simmer on medium-low heat
- Cut up the asparagus and leeks and rinse them
- Add asparagus, leeks, peas, 2 teaspoons of garlic, to broth, bring it to a boil, then take off heat
- Strain the vegetables and garlic from the broth and set aside
- In a separate pan, add 6 tablespoons of olive oil and sauté 2 teaspoons of garlic
- Add vegetables to the pan, with 1/4 teaspoon of pepper and 1 cup of white wine and bring to a boil
- To the broth in the pot, add lemon juice and zest, parmesan, mint, chives, the vegetables from the pan, and pasta, and cook for 10 minutes or whatever the pasta box directions say
- Strain the pasta and add salt and pepper to taste afterward
Useless Information and a Photo
After mom, the titular Fay Marie, passed, I found this recipe handwritten in her disorganized chicken scratch (I’m sure it made sense to her), among the thousands of recipes she wrote out, clipped, or photocopied from various print sources. She made a few different versions of pasta primavera, and my favorite of hers was spaghetti with broccoli, carrots, snow peas, in a cream sauce. This obviously is very different, but I couldn’t pass up trying to recreate something she had come up by herself.
You might want to save some of the pasta water to add after straining but I’ve never cared for doing that. Since there’s no tomato sauce or cream, this was a pretty light dish; the wine and the lemon really show up here and play well with the earthiness of the asparagus. We had this with the rest of the bottle of wine we bought for the recipe. Wine and food pairing recommendations are made up nonsense but this combo seems to work well.
