You’d never know that pasta primavera, a pseudo-Italian dish that appears on virtually every chain restaurant menu, actually has roots in French haute cuisine.
The usual reproduction — a random jumble of produce tossed with noodles in a heavy, flavor-deadening cream sauce — tastes nothing like spring. Surprisingly, when we dug up the original recipe from New York’s famed Le Cirque restaurant, our colleagues found it wasn’t all that inspiring either, despite taking about 2 hours to prepare and dirtying five pans.
First, the vegetables (which had been painstakingly blanched one by one) were bland. Second, the cream-, butter-, and cheese-enriched sauce dulled flavor and didn’t really unify the dish.
If we wanted a true spring-vegetable pasta — with a few thoughtfully chosen vegetables and a light, but full-bodied sauce that clung well to the noodles and brought the dish together — we’d have to start from the beginning.
SPRING VEGETABLE PASTA
Servings: 4-6
Start to finish: 1 hour
1 1/2 pounds leeks, white and light green parts halved lengthwise, sliced 1/2 inch thick, and washed thoroughly, plus 3 cups coarsely chopped dark green parts, washed thoroughly
1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed, chopped coarse, and reserved; spears cut on bias into 1/2 inch lengths
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
4 cups vegetable broth
1 cup water
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons minced fresh mint
2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest,
plus 2 tablespoons juice
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 pound campanelle (farfalle and penne are acceptable substitutes)
1 cup dry white wine
1 ounce Parmesan cheese, grated (1/2 cup), plus extra for serving
Nutrition information per serving: 605 calories; 155 calories from fat; 17 g fat (2 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 4 mg cholesterol; 436 mg sodium; 88 g carbohydrate; 10 g fiber; 13 g sugar; 18 g protein.
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