SHORT PASTA WITH ASPARAGUS, LEMON, GARLIC AND PARSLEY
If there’s anything you’re going to end up eating, sitting in the garden, throughout summer, it is this. True, new season’s asparagus, our own home-grown asparagus, is what you’d use ideally (and this is, incidentally, a very good way of making a relatively small amount of expensive asparagus go far without tasting of economy), but I don’t think it’s necessary to restrict preparation of this to the short time it’s in season. You wouldn’t want to eat this in winter when all you can get is thick and fibrous spears from far-flung places, but bits straggling in from here and there later on in summer is nothing to get preciously sniffy about.
The simplicity of this is not just about ease of preparation, gratifying though this is, but about the uncluttered, perfectly balanced arrangement of tastes and texture.
500g asparagus
salt
125ml extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
juice and zest of half a large lemon
500g rigatoni or penne or any short, stubby pasta you want
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
Snap the woody stems off the bottom of the asparagus, and cut the remaining stalk lengthways and diagonally at 2cm intervals, leaving the tip whole. If it is possible, find a large saucepan to cook the pasta in, that can fit a steamer on top. Bring the saucepan to the boil, add salt generously, and steam the asparagus for 2 minutes. Obviously, you can use two separate pans if you want, but there’s something pleasing about dovetailing the operation. And I know that steaming the asparagus means it will be no longer hot when you toss it in the pasta, but I don’t mind that; if you do, put it in the microwave for a few seconds – go slowly just till it’s warm, otherwise you run the risk of overcooking it – to reheat when you drain the pasta later.
Put the oil in a frying pan and gently turn the garlic golden over a pretty low heat – you neither want the garlic to burn and turn acrid nor the oil to lose its robustness of flavour – then add the lemon juice, stir and take off the heat. Meanwhile cook the rigatoni, or whatever, in the big pan of water, and when it is al dente, drain and pour into the frying pan. Add the asparagus, toss everything about, sprinkling with the parsley and not-too-finely grated lemon zest.
If you’re serving the pasta in a bowl (rather than just serving it straight from the pan – and there’s nothing wrong in that) remember to heat it first, and add the parsley and lemon zest only after the pasta’s been transferred.
Serves 6 as a starter; 4 as a main course.