We love white asparagus and traditionally we make classic white asparagus at the start of the season. We have prepared a range of dishes with asparagus and are always keen to try something new. Recently we saw a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara with Asparagus. Wrong idea. Spaghetti Carbonara is an iconic Italian dish, made with spaghetti, guanciale, eggs, Parmesan cheese and/or Pecorino and black pepper. No reason to change or add anything. The picture showed penne, asparagus, basil and a creamy, rich sauce. Well, we must admit, it did look tempting. What if we would skip the penne and basil? That combination is not too dissimilar to the classic one. Knowing how tasty the combination of grilled asparagus and Parmesan cheese is, what’s stopping us? Let’s give it a try!
Before you dash of to your kitchen: the recipe comes with a challenge. The starch of the spaghetti helps thicken the sauce of Spaghetti Carbonara. There is no starch in this combination. Even more challenging, the asparagus are moist which will make the sauce thinner. When you’ve added the egg mixture to the pan, you will have to increase the heat to thicken the sauce. Too quickly or not enough stirring and your sauce will become an omelette. Be careful!
Wine Pairing
A Pinot Gris form Northern Italy will go very well with this dish. In general, a white wine with aromas of for instance lemon, green apple or pear. Some refreshing acidity is perfect with the rich sauce. The wine should be light to medium bodied.
What You Need
- 500 grams of (white) Asparagus
- 100 grams of Pancetta
- 2 Organic Eggs
- Parmesan Cheese or Pecorino
- Black Pepper
What You Do
- Peel the asparagus
- Steam the asparagus for 10 minutes, depending on the size. The asparagus should remain crunchy
- Cut the asparagus in 4 or 5 pieces
- Cut of the rind of the pancetta (if any)
- Dice the meat. Small cubes are best, the salty meat should become a condiment
- Warm a pan to medium heat
- Fry the pancetta
- Whisk the eggs, add some freshly grated Parmesan cheese, add some black pepper and whisk again
- Reduce the heat to minimum
- Add the asparagus to the pan
- Combine and make sure the asparagus are nicely coated with the fat and juices from the meat.
- Now it’s time to create the creamy sauce!
- Check if the pan is not too hot. If so, better wait a minute
- Add the egg mixture and combine
- Now for the difficult part: carefully increase (!) the heat while moving the asparagus, the pancetta and the sauce, keep moving, add more grated cheese, it helps thickening the sauce, taste, keep moving, and do so until the sauce has the right consistency. This may take a few minutes.
- Serve immediately on a warm plate
PS
- We decided to use pancetta instead of guanciale because pancetta has a milder taste, which combines better with the bitterness of the asparagus.
- We haven’t prepared the dish with Green Asparagus. Anyone willing to give it a try?
Cook and Drink 