PAPPARDELLE with LEMON & ASPARAGUS - Be Still My Heart

PAPPARDELLE with LEMON & ASPARAGUS

Be Still My Heart

This is a simple tale:

Some time ago dear friends gave us and another couple Christopher Idone's "LEMONS - A Country Garden Cookbook" and organized a dinner for the six of us where we'd each made a course from a recipe inside the book.

Our assignment, if we chose to accept it (we did) was appetizers and one of the dishes we made (let me clarify that -- Richard made) was the lemon pizza with creme fraiche and red caviar... it melted in our mouths.

The "dessert couple" chose the cookbook's lemon meringue pie with a crust to truly "flake" over.

But it was the host couple's pappardelle dish that won my heart and has become my new favorite pasta.  Fresh. Creamy.  Cheesy.  As I wrote above... be still my heart!

End of tale.

Pappardelle w/ Lemon & Asparagus

Ingredients:

1 pound pencil-thin asparagus, approximately 32 stalks

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 pound fresh or dried pappardelle

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Juice of one lemon

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Zest of one lemon, cut into julienne

Grated Parmesan cheese for serving

Directions:

Cutting on the diagonal, trim the tough ends of the asparagus.  Cu the asparagus into 3 or 4 even pieces on the diagonal.  In a nonreactive kettle of lightly salted boiling water, cook the asparagus for 2 minutes or until just crisp.  Blanch in cold running water and drain.

In sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter and cream.  Allow to cook at a low simmer.

Cook the pappardelle in the kettle of salted boiling water until al dente and drain well.  

While the pasta is boiling, heat the oil in a large skillet and add the blanched asparagus.  Add the hot cream/butter mixture and fold in the lemon juice.  Season with pepper.

Add the drained pasta to the sauce and toss well.

Divide among 4 or 5 warm soup plates and sprinkle with julienned zest.

Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4 to 5