I’ve been loving on the carbonara pastas lately, even though I know that they probably aren’t the most healthy dinner dishes to eat. This Jamie Oliver recipe for Asparagus Fettuccine has no bacon or creme fraiche, and in fact is pretty healthy. But when blended together, the slowly cooked veggies with vegetable broth become surprisingly rich and creamy. It almost makes you think you are eating a carbonara. This pasta dish feeds 4 people at $1.48 per serving.
Asparagus Fettuccine
extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
1 small stick of celery, diced
1 medium zucchini, finely diced
1 small leek, white part only, diced
16 stalks asparagus, tips reserved, stalks thinly sliced
small handful of basil leaves
10 ounces vegetable stock
1 garlic clove, minced
fresh or dried fettuccine
finely grated Parmesan cheese
Add some olive oil to a pan over a low heat and sweat the onion and celery until they are soft. Then add the zucchini, leek, and asparagus stalks and cook them for a further 2-3 minutes. Add most the of the basil leaves and when they wilt, pour in the vegetable stock. Allow everything to simmer until the veggies are tender.
Remove the pan from the heat and use an immersion blender or food processor to blend everything together until the veggies become creamy. Heat up a little olive oil in another frying pan over a low heat and cook the minced garlic until it is soft. Add the asparagus sauce and let it simmer for another 2 or so minutes.
Boil a pan of salted water and cook the fettuccine according to the packet’s instructions. 3 minutes before the pasta is done, add the asparagus tips to the boiling water.
Drain the cooked pasta and asparagus tips, and reserve some of the cooking water. Add a bit of the cooking water to the asparagus sauce and then add the sauce to the cooked pasta. Loosen the pasta and sauce with cooking water as needed. Finish off by adding the remaining basil and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
My roommate and I cooked this tonight and it was good. While cooking we decided it was a little bland so we added some paprika and chili powder to spice it up! Oh! and we topped it off with some turkey bacon
Andrew, adding bacon ruins it being a healthy carbonara-like pasta! I think you just need to add lots of salt and pepper to it, plus use fresh asparagus.