Friday, October 20, 2006

Asparagus Pasta



We grow asparagus. There are four plants at the back of the garden, and with no attention apart from a yearly feed of manure, there seems to be enough for the three of us, for 2 or 3 meals a week for about 6 weeks. This post commemorates the end of our asparagus season, at which point I'm usually happy to leave the plant alone to send its ferny shoots skywards.

I love asparagus with hollandaise sauce, but obviously we don't do that here. Asparagus with melted butter and lemon is the bees knees, and I love this pasta recipe. My mum gave it to me a long time ago, and it has mutated and simplified alot. This year I added a little bacon to it, as we get the best bacon in the world (from Hagans, the organic butcher at Vic Market, damn that Age article for mentioning it).

1 onion, diced finely
splash of olive oil
1-2 rashers of bacon, cut finely
a handful of asparagus, thinly sliced
a few tbs of cream

Put enough pasta for three on.

Soften onion in a frying pan with some olive oil, then add bacon and fry. When the pasta is 5 minutes from being done add the asparagus to the onions, turn down the heat down to the minimum and cook with the lid on the frying pan. When pasta is done, add cream to frying pan and heat. Then tip in drained pasta and mix thoroughly.

Serve with parmasean cheese.