While I write this post – recipe for pasta salad – I am on my balcony enjoying the first Spring sunshine. Terrific! Those first warm rays of sun mean that you almost immediately wake from your winter sleep and look forward to summer with fresh new energy.
Spring is also the season with the most exquisite products in culinary terms. What about a deliciously tender cut of lamb? Or the luxurious Eastern Scheldt lobster? For me, the delicious fresh vegetables are also worth the wait every year. Natural white gold, those delicious fresh stalks of asparagus. But there is also fresh spinach, tangy rhubarb and not to forget fresh garden peas. Unfortunately, you hardly ever see them in the pod anymore in shops in the Netherlands, and we nearly always buy them frozen, or worse, in a can. But there is nothing better than fresh garden peas you have podded yourself. Briefly cooked, crispy and nearly sweet in flavour.
Reason enough to choose this month for a delicious pasta salad to celebrate Spring. With fresh asparagus and self-podded garden peas! And to make it extra festive, we also choose the gorgeous orecchiette pasta from Southern Italy. Wonderful to put on the table for an evening meal, but also ideal to make in advance and serve during a festive buffet.
Enjoy!
Ingredients (for 4 people)
400 g orecchiette
500 g green asparagus
600 g fresh garden peas in the pod
4 el extra virgin olive oil
2 lemons, juiced
60 g Parmesan cheese, grated
200 g ricotta
salt
pepper
Preparation
- Bring a pan of water with a pinch of salt to a boil. Add the orecchiette and cook about 13 minutes until the pasta is al dente.
- In the meantime, cut the asparagus in coarse pieces and pod the peas. Add the asparagus 3 minutes before the end of the cooking time; the peas 1 minute later.
- Drain the pasta with the vegetables, rinse with cold water, shake and let drain again.
- Add olive oil, lemon juice and Parmesan cheese and stir well. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Place the pasta on plates or a bowl and garnish with a few dabs of ricotta and an extra dash of olive oil.
Tip
If you can find them, use beautiful garden pea shoots for the garnish; this will make the dish even more festive!
Tip
This dish can of course be made beautifully with white asparagus instead of green.
In the photo: tablecloth and napkins Cottona damask collection, photo: Tom Nooijen