Whole Wheat Pasta with Asparagus Pesto

I don't make that much pasta as I often associate it with empty calories and decadent meals.  Although I consider myself a huge foodie, I'm very self-conscious of what I eat and how much I eat.  Thus, pasta is frequently one of those calorie-rich, nutrient-absent meals that most Americans gorge themselves on because it's clearly "good."  And I'm not the only one who thinks this way: Russ, a podcaster from Fat 2 Fit Radio, once said (and I paraphrase): "I don't often think of making pasta dishes because...well...they're just not that good for you."

Russ's comment was actually said in defense of a healthy pasta dish and I feel that if he had tried and read about this recipe, he too would be a believer in healthy pasta.  Here's why this pasta dish is different: whole wheat pasta instead of regular white pasta, pesto instead of white sauce, and smaller servings instead of the "eat until you're can't breathe" mentality round the dish out at about 400-450 calories max.

This dish is healthy, green (and we should strive to eat all things green!), and clearly delicious.

Whole Wheat Pasta with Asparagus Pesto
This recipe comes from nowhere in particular, but if you're looking for a recipe that combines pesto (any form) with pasta, see Elise Bauer's "Asparagus Pesto with Pasta" for an example.

Ingredients:
* 1 serving Whole Wheat Pasta, Spaghetti
* 2-3 tablespoons asparagus pesto, see recipe here (made with Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil)

1.) Begin by bringing a medium pot of water to a boil.  Season water with 1 tablespoon salt.  Remember, Italian cooks believe that good pasta should have flavor, and the way in which to get that flavor is to make pasta water taste like sea water.

2.) Add whole wheat pasta and cook until tender, but still firm (al dente).  Always tatse pasta before it's done--there's nothing worse than uncooked pasta.

3.) Remove from heat and strain.  I prefer not to give whole wheat pasta a cold water bath (frankly, it doesn't need it).

4.) Place on serving dish.

5.) Add 2-3 dollops of pesto.  Mix to integrate and enjoy! Makes 1 serving.

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Asparagus Pesto w/Basil Infused Olive Oil

Asparagus Pesto.  Wait.  What? You can make pesto with asparagus? HOLD ON.

Yup, "pesto" literally translates to "paste" and can be made with any number of green ingredients (basil, peas, asparagus, etc.).  Equally flexible in pesto recipes are the nut contents--pine nuts can be traded out for walnuts, pecans, or my personal favorite--pistachios.

I came across this recipe while searching for pea pesto on The New York Times website.  I had it last summer (almost exactly a year ago) at a friend's house and was blown away by its yumminess as well as the fact that it was made with PEAS.  I had no idea pesto could be made with other ingredients (like the ones outlined above), and boy was I in for a surprise.  Although I'm still searching for said recipe, this asparagus pesto packs a unique yumminess as it is both its own entity--asparagus pesto--and also a close friend to traditional basil pesto--I've substituted Vom Fass's Basil Olive Oil for regular EVOO.

Eat this recipe with pasta, on a cracker or bread, mixed into a grilled cheese sandwich, and you've got a seriously green and clearly delicious treat!

Asparagus Pesto
This recipe comes from The New York Times food & dining section (May 7, 2010) and can be found here. For an instructional video on making this dish, see Mark Bittman's short here.  I've made one major change to the recipe--instead of using regular Olive Oil, I used Vom Fass's Basil Infused Olive Oil (you can find it here on their website).  The change is fanastic: although not a basil pesto at all, this asparagus pesto packs a basil kick that reminds one of the most common and flavorful version.  Try this recipe with, or without the basil olive oil, or feel free to puree some basil during the cooking process.

Ingredients:
* 1 lb asparagus, woody ends trimmed
* 2-4 cloves garlic, pressed or minced, to taste
* 1/4 cup pine nuts, pecans, walnuts, or pistachios, finely chopped
* 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
* salt & pepper to taste

1.) Trim woody ends of asparagus.  For a video on how to remove asparagus woody ends without using a knife, see here.

2.) Cut asparagus into 1 inch spears.

3.) Bring 1 small-to-medium pot of water w/salt to taste to a boil.  Add asparagus and cook until tender.  As Mark Bitter notes in his video, asparagus is done when a knife, held up to their skin, punctures straight through without pressure, or resistance.

4.) Strain asparagus and allow to cool.

5.) While asparagus is cooking, you can prep your other ingredients--measure and chop nuts (whether pine nuts, pecans, pistachios, etc.), peel garlic, measure parmesan, and get olive oil ready.  Here, I use Vom Fass's Basil Infused Olive Oil (you can find it on their website here).  It gives the pesto an extra kick than regular non-basil based pesto.  Technically, this dish isn't a basil pesto, but the use of basil olive oil adds a hint of the familiar to your pureed asparagus.

6.) Add strained and cooled asparagus to a food processor.  Pulse to combine until pureed.  Some asparagus may require the addition of a 1/4 of water depending on how quickly/easily they puree.  If you find that the asparagus is still retaining its form and not pureeing, then add the water; this trick will fix your texture-retaining hang up!

7.) Add other ingredients:

8.) Pulse to combine and taste.  Adjust with salt and pepper to taste.

9.) Serve with Pasta, bread, cheese, grilled cheese, sandwiches, or other clearly delicious treats.

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Asparagus & Prosciutto Quiche

My friend Lydia LOVES quiche.  If she could eat something everyday, I'm pretty sure it would be quiche.  Ham quiche.  Spinach Quiche.  Or this recipe, her new favorite, Prosciutto and Asparagus Quiche. 

This asparagus and ham quiche is as flavorful as it is attractive: sauteed mixed greens with thinly sliced quality ham makes for a satisfying veggie-ham crunch.  Stir in your favorite seasonings (pepper, thyme, etc.) and you've got a breakfast dish that is Clearly Delicious.

Asparagus and Ham Quiche
This recipe comes from Elise Bauer and can be found here. The original calls for regular ham over prosciutto, and suggests you use Elise's all butter crust recipe (you can find it here and on Elise's blog).  However, when in a hurry, feel free to buy one of those pre-made pie crusts and just prepare the filling.  It's kind of like cheating...kind of...but makes the below process so much faster!

Ingredients
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 1 bunch asparagus (about 10 ounces), woody stems removed
* 2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
* 1/2 pound ham, or prosciutto thinly sliced
* 1/2 cup cream
* 1/2 cup milk
* 3 large eggs
* 1 1/2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
* black pepper, freshly grated, to taste
* 1 teaspoon thyme
* 1 pie crust (premade, or all butter pie crust recipe here)

1.) Preheat oven to 350F.  Line pie dish with pastry dough and prepare ingredients (chop shallots, asparagus, and ham).  Don't forget to remove the asparagus's woody ends.

2.) Warm olive oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat.  Add shallots and cook for 2-3 minutes and add asparagus, cooking for an additional 10 minutes, or until tender.

3.) Beat 3 eggs and combine with 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup milk.  Whisk together to fully integrate.

4.) Add asparagus, shallots, ham, and seasonings to egg/quiche mixture.  Once fully integrated, pour into your waiting pie crust dish.

5.) Put in oven and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean (just like when you're baking a cake).

6.) Transfer to a cooling rack and let sit for five minutes.  Serve and enjoy!

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Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

By and large asparagus is HANDS DOWN one of my favorite foods (what can I say? I like my vegetables!).  Plus, wrapping fresh asparagus with a thin layer of bacon, or prosciutto (as this recipe suggests) adds amazing flavor and texture to the asparagus.  Serve with a little olive oil, fresh pepper and salt, and you've got a dish that's easily clearly delicious. 


Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus
This recipe can be adapted to any easily wrapped pork product like bacon.  Prosciutto, however, has a special texture, and smokey flavor that really works nicely with asparagus.  However, I suggest only using thinly sliced prosciutto because too much pork and you won't be able to taste that yummy asparagus!

Ingredients:
* 1 bunch of fresh asparagus, woody ends trimmed
* 4 oz of thinly sliced prosciutto
* olive oil
* Salt & Pepper to taste

1.) Preheat oven at 350F.  Wash asparagus and trim woody ends.  Line them along a clean cookie sheet.

2.) Wrap asparagus with prosciutto.

3.) Drizzle with olive oil and spread thinly over asparagus with a silicone brush, or cook's brush.  Crack fresh pepper over the asparagus and sprinkle with salt.

4.) Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, but still retain their crunchy shape.  Enjoy!


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Na'an with Pesto, Roasted Asparagus, and Salad

This recipe is one of those magical concoctions that just come to you.  You like all of the ingredients separately and then one day, you throw them together.  Even better, the recipe comes to you as one of those five minute meals kind of things--you have the ingredients lying around and literally, just toss them together. On any day of the week, you'll find some kind of salad in my fridge and some roasted veggies.  Tonight, it just so happened I had the fresh summer salad recipe from an earlier post and roasted asparagus.  Toss the two on top of toasted na'an, a base of pesto, and top with balsamic vinegar, and OH MY GOD...I still haven't recovered.  This is filling, but low in calories.  Clearly, it is indeed delicious.

Na'an with Pesto, Roasted Asparagus, and Salad
You can really alternate the vegetables tossed onto this bread.  Roasted portobellas, tofu, peppers, really anything would go nicely on top of this bed of salad and na'an. I used roasted asparagus because it's what I had leftover from the night before, and merely heated it up.  So yummy....

* 1 loaf of na'an, toasted
* 2-3 tablespoons pesto
* 1 cup salad (your choice!)
* 1 cup roasted asparagus
* 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1.) Cook na'an in oven for 5 mins or until crispy.  Place on serving dish.
2.) Spread 2-3 tablespoons of pesto over warm na'an (it will get all melty, oh my), and top with a bed of salad.
3.) Then, add heated asparagus (or portobella mushrooms, or whatever) on top of na'an/salad bed, and lightly marinade with 2 or more tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. 
4.) Eat with knife and fork, or cut up like one would a pizza.  The crust is very durable and should support the veggie toppings.  Enjoy!


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Fusilli with Asparagus, Ricotta, and Parmesan

When my Uncle Doug came to visit this week, I wanted to make something that was both delicious and quick in preparation (Uncle Doug rolled in at 12:30, and I had gotten up at 9:00 and still needed to go to the store! Oy!).  Thus, I made a dish that was guaranteed to be tasty to everyone--pasta.  Not just pasta, richly flavored pasta with a homemade sauce made from ricotta cheese, Parmesan, asparagus, and spices.

This recipe, like many of my favorites, comes from Elise Bauer over at Simply Recipes and can be found here.  I've made several adjustments to the recipe (the spice combination, pasta suggestion, etc. have all been adjusted according to my palette). Otherwise, the core recipe remains pretty much the same.  Uncle Doug liked the recipe ("very much"), which is a big deal given that he doesn't consider himself a pasta man!

Fusilli with Asparagus, Ricotta, and Parmesan
The below recipe originally calls for penne pasta.  Although I am a big fan of penne, I have discovered that fusilli often offers a certainly preparational edge over penne in the final product.  Unlike penne (a short, tube-like pasta), fusilli is the "swirly" pasta we often see at picnics and creates a natural grip on the sauce around it.  Essentially, fusilli holds tight to cheeses and sauces (they get stuck in its endless swirls), whereas penne often slips through sauces. 

Ingredients
* salt, for the water
* 1 1/4 pound thick asparagus, woody ends trimmed
* 1 lb penne, or fusilli pasta
* 2-3 cloves garlic, pressed, or chopped finely
* 15 oz ricotta cheese (about 1.86 cups)
* 2 Tbsp olive oil
* 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
* Several dashes of Nutmeg

1.) Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add one tablespoon of oil to prevent the fusilli pasta from sticking, and feel free to add plenty of salt to the water.  Although salt is certainly not a cornerstone to a healthy diet (and can be nutritionally harmful in excess), the Italians believe that pasta water should taste like the consistency of seawater.  This technique gives pasta incredible flavor, and really adds to the body of a dish.
2.) Once water has come to a boil, add the asparagus and boil for 4-5 minutes.  Make sure to have an ice bath ready (I used a colander filled with ice), and when the asparagus is done, remove from water using tongs, and place on ice bath to stop the cooking process.  Reserve 1/4 cup asparagus water for the sauce.
3.) Bring water back to a boil and add pasta.  Cook for 8-10 minutes, or until pasta is "al dente" or "to the tooth" or "to the bite" in Italian. Essentially, the pasta should be firm to the bite, but not too soft that it is soggy or loses its structure when prepared in a dish.  Strain pasta and reserve 1 cup water (you may need this for the final sauce).
4.) While the pasta is cooking, crush 1-2 cloves of garlic and wipe down your prep bowl with it.  Measure out 15oz of ricotta cheese (1.86 cups, or about 1/2 of a standard 32 ounce container) and add to bowl.  Add olive oil, 1/2 of Parmesan, a crushed clove of garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and several dashes of nutmeg;  mix up sauce.  Continue to taste sauce until it has the right spice to it.  I can never really suggest the perfect amount of salt or pepper here because it really does depend on the person.  Additionally, you may wish to add other kitchen spices like Italian seasoning, oregano, basil, rosemary, etc. to the dish, so feel free to experiment with your seasonings.
5.) Add cooked pasta and mix with sauce to integrate.  If you feel the sauce is too clumpy, you can use some of your reserved pasta/asparagus water and smooth it out.  However, you don't have to add this water, it's merely a suggestion.  Continue to taste for flavoring (ricotta is a naturally bland cheese, so figuring out your favorite seasoning combination here is really what can make the dish your own (not to mention tastier!)). 
6.) Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan cheese on top of the pasta as a garnish and enjoy!

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