Pasta with Asparagus, Mushrooms and Lardons
This is it! The time we have been waiting for in our garden with the arrival of fabulous green shoots of asparagus to delight our tastes and we have a garden full of it! Weeks late this year because of the worst Spring in living memory, it is now making up for lost time and every morning brings a profusion of new, succulent shoots.
Nothing delights us more than to eat this vegetable and so I thought I would share this photograph with you and a recipe I recently cooked which is so simple.
Just heat some olive oil in a large pan and cook a few lardons,( cubes of bacon), and fresh mushrooms, which, given that we live in the largest mushroom growing area in France, are easy to find, until just turning brown. At the same time bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook some multi coloured pasta for a few minutes. After the bacon and mushroom are cooked, drain the cooked pasta and then add to the large pan of cooked bacon and mushrooms and mix together with some cream. Meantime you can cook your spears of asparagus for a few minutes either in a pan of boiling water or, alternatively, you can microwave them for a few minutes to keep their flavour. Afterwards, place the cooked asparagus on the top of your pan of pasta, bacon and mushrooms and serve with some shavings of parmesan on the top. Very easy and scrumptious! It’s nice as a main course or a simple starter and one of my favourites!
And for a wine – funnily enough, I would recommend one which is generally of our least favourite, the rosé, Cabernet d’Anjou, which, however, if it has one use in the whole universe it is to go with aparagus, which is notoriously difficult to partner with wine.
Bon appetit!
Sheila
Gites in the Loire Valley 