 Lidia Bastianich had a delicious springtime pasta recently on her Facebook page. I couldn’t resist trying orecchiette with asparagus and peas, especially now that asparagus are in season. It’s perfect for a meatless Friday. Orecchiette translates to little ears and they look like little saucers. There is no sauce per say on this pasta. You are using the sautéed vegetables with their flavored, residual extra virgin olive oil and some reserved pasta cooking water. This is a two pan supper. You’ll need a large pot of salted water for the pasta and a sauté pan to cook the asparagus, sliced garlic, peas and scallions. After the pasta is cooked, use a spider (a skimmer that is wide and made of wire mesh) to transfer the pasta to the sauté pan. The pasta is mixed with the vegetables and tossed with fresh parsley and some additional extra virgin olive oil.  The combination of asparagus, scallions and peas made for a delightfully delicious meal. Topping the pasta with grated Parmesan and additional fresh ground pepper really enhanced the flavors of this dish. My husband enjoyed the meal, however, I think he would have liked some type of sauce be it tomato or cheese.
I also made another featured recipe of hers from Facebook, asparagus and leeks in lemon vinaigrette. I had purchased more leeks than I needed for a recipe and didn’t know what I would do with them, however, this recipe looked enticing. Besides, we had just visited some friends of my husband and they had given us some eggs from their chickens. The simplicity of this dish made each of these ingredients shine. Again, a switch up on a standard green salad was a pleasant change. The dish had a lightness and was refreshing with a lemon vinaigrette. This week your local Shop-Rite has asparagus on special for $0.99/lb., Foodtown $1.99/lb. (store loyalty cards maybe need for sale prices) and Whole Foods has organic asparagus for $2.99/lb.
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