what are the pastabilities?

My husband adores his pasta. Sadly to say, we have it once a week and some times, not always, we can finish a pound of pasta between the both of us. Back in April 1991, Gourmet Magazine published a recipe for pasta with spring vegetables and prosciutto. This recipe is loaded with asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, fresh or frozen petits pois (tiny peas), and snow peas. At this late date in the spring, you can still find New Jersey asparagus in the food markets. Although trenette pasta (fettuccine with one ruffled edge) may be difficult to find, Wegmans carries mafaldine (fettuccine with two ruffled edges) pasta for just under $5 for 17.6 ounce package.

---

As I had to work yesterday, I prepped the veggies and sliced the prosciutto into thin strips before going to work. When I got home, I quickly made the tomato sauce and heated up a large pot of water to blanch all the vegetables. Once the vegetables were blanched, I placed them in the tomato sauce and then cooked the pasta. If I include the 10 or 15 minutes for prepping the vegetables and finish preparing the dish, it probably took approximately 45 minutes to get supper on the table last night.

No, we didn't finish the pasta. As a matter of fact, my daughter was down last night and had supper with us. There's a container left in the refrigerator, which will probably be someone's dinner one night this week.

As the local produce comes into the market this summer, you can add other vegetables to make this sauce. Although there is 1/2 cup of heavy cream in the sauce, it's not too rich or too filling.  Enjoy!