I had bought lots of beautiful asparagus from Russo’s last week and needed to use it before it went bad. When I saw this Martha Stewart recipe that involved asparagus AND goat cheese, I automatically decided to make it. I really enjoy making pasta dishes, especially near the end of the week. They always give me lots of leftovers, making it easy to grab a quick meal before going out on a Friday or Saturday night.
It was really quick and easy to make and involves very few ingredients. First, put the asparagus on a pan with a teaspoon of butter sprinkled around.
Bake it at 450 degrees for 10-15 minutes, until it’s nice and tender. Meanwhile, boil your pasta until it’s al dente. The recipe called for cavatappi, but I used fusilli because I thought it was prettier (and a little less macaroni salad-ish). When you drain your pasta, be sure to save about 1 1/2 cups of the water.
The sauce for the pasta involves about 5 ounces of goat cheese and 3 tablespoons of butter. OK, so it’s not the healthiest thing in the world, but it’s sooo good.
Whisk the goat cheese and butter together, along with half a cup of the pasta water.
Then add the asparagus and sauce to the pasta and mix. I added peas too, because…well, I like peas. I also bought chicken with the intention of adding a little protein to the dish and then I put the chicken in the fridge and promptly forgot about it. Until I was doing the dishes and realized I didn’t have any pans to wash. But I do think chicken would have gone wonderfully with the dish.
Serve it with some chives on top! Yum!
If you are a goat cheese fan, trust me, you will like this! And yes, it gave me lots and lots of leftovers!
I happily listened to Ryan Adams’ Heartbreaker while I cooked….because he’s coming to Boston in September and I’m all kinds of excited. Happy weekend!
[Sues]
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