212. Pasta Primavera (p. 211)

The first day of Spring was last Saturday, and it was an amazingly beautiful day here in New England. We're talking sunny and in the 70s. To celebrate the return of the nice weather, my wife and I took our son for his first trip to the zoo, and for dinner, I made Pasta Primavera. (In true New England fashion, however, this Saturday, the temperatures had dropped back into the 30s. Oh, well, the warm weather was nice while it lasted.)

According to The Book, this recipe comes from Le Cirque, a paragon of the NYC dining scene. (If you've never seen the HBO documentary about the restaurant, Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven, it's worth checking out for an interesting insight into the high-end restaurant industry.) I've had several different versions of Pasta Primavera, and some of them have been pretty awful. If this recipe is really the original, as suggested by The Book, it proves that a copy is never quite the same as the masterpiece.

The first ingredient in this list is one ounce of dried morel mushrooms. Not surprisingly, dried morels is not a regular inventory item at your basic suburban supermarket. So, I used dried porcinis. I know that they're not even remotely the same as morels, but according to my research on the Cook's Thesaurus, they were close enough.

To get started, I began soaking the mushrooms in some boiling water to reconstitute. Next I prepped all of my vegetables: I cut some fresh asparagus and green beans into one-inch pieces, I chopped some fresh basil and parsley, I grated some lemon zest, and I halved and quartered some grape tomatoes. Last, I set out some frozen peas to thaw. (I'm totally with The Book on this one. I don't know why, but frozen peas are 100% better than either fresh or canned peas. I use them all the time.)

Then, I got to cooking. I boiled the asparagus, beans and peas in a large pot of salted, boiling water for just a few minutes. Then I scooped the vegetables out with a slotted spoon and transferred them to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. (The Book says to save the vegetable cooking liquid to use to boil the pasta -- a nice unexpected bit of conservation.) Once the vegetables were cooled, I drained them, and sauteed them for just a couple of minutes with some olive oil, garlic and red pepper flakes.

Wile the pasta boiled (The Book calls for spaghettini), I made the tomato sauce. I cooked some garlic and red pepper flakes in oil, and added the quartered grape tomatoes, cooking them down into a sauce. Then I added some salt and pepper, balsamic vinegar, a bit of water and the halved grape tomatoes and cooked it a bit more.

When the pasta was al dente, I drained it into a colander. Then I added some butter, cream, lemon zest and the reconstituted mushrooms (which I had roughly chopped) to the pasta pot. I simmered it for a little bit and added a ton of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano. I added the drained pasta back to the pot and tossed it with the sauce. I thinned out the sauce with a bit of the mushroom soaking liquid ... just enough so that the sauce would lightly coat the pasta without being too wet. Finally, I added the vegetables, the herbs and some toasted pine nuts. I served the pasta topped with some of the tomato sauce.

This dish was pretty labor-intensive, but it did come together pretty quickly once I got started. The effort was worth it, though. The flavors were excellent. The cream sauce was rich without being overwhelming. The mushrooms (even though I didn't use the prescribed morels) gave the dish a certain earthiness. The vegetables and herbs contributed freshness and gave the dish it's namesake "spring-ness." The real star, though, was the tomato sauce. It was rich and deeply flavorful. Very, very good.

Date Cooked: March 20, 2010
Degree of Difficulty: Medium, with a bit of prep work and a fast-paced cooking
Rating: A-

113. Asparagus with Tarragon Sherry Vinaigrette (p. 520)

I've never had the kind of fancy dinner party where the host serves a "first course." But I will, and when I do, I'm going to serve this recipe, or something like it.

This dish is elegant, delicious, and best of all, it's pretty easy to make and can be done ahead of time. Basically, it's poached asparagus, served cold with a light vinaigrette and garnished with some grated hard-boiled egg.

The notes in The Book say that recipes like this were a mainstay on the menus of the grand hotels in a bygone era. A dish like this would have been called by the poetic name "Asparagus Mimosa" because the fluffy grated hard-boil eggs resemble mimosa blossoms.

Like I said, the preparation couldn't be easier, and so the taste return on the minimal time investment is pretty good. All you do is poach the asparagus for a few minutes in some boiling water and then plunge it into some icy water to stop the cooking. I cooked mine for just a minute longer than I should have, so even though it was a bit softer than I wanted it, it was still vibrantly green and flavorful.

While the asparagus cooled, I whisked together the vinaigrette of minced shallots, olive oil, sherry vinegar and a healthy helping of chopped fresh tarragon. I tossed the asparagus with a little bit of the dressing just to coat it, and then I served it by putting some of the asparagus on a plate, drizzling on a bit more of the dressing and topping it off with some grated hard-boiled egg. (I used The Book's fool-proof method for hard boiling an egg to produce a perfetly-set egg with a vibrantly yellow yolk and not a trace of green. Check it out.)

This was a really delicious dish. The interplay of the crunchy asparagus (I imagined what the asparagus would have tasted like if I hadn't overcooked it) with the fluffy cloud of grated egg was nice. The flavor of the vinaigrette was excellent, and could easily be put to use in a variety of other chicken or egg dishes. Tarragon (also called "dragon herb," who knew?) is one of the most singular and nearly indescribable flavors. It's also one of my favorites.

Believe it or not, this dish even stood up reasonably well to a few days of refrigeration (each of the elements stored in its own container).

Date Cooked: February 15, 2009
Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Rating: A-