Leek is the new Fennel: Pasta Primavera

Jeff Green | May 14, 2015

Pasta Primavera can be a creamy dish, served with carrots and peas.

But it can also be prepared as a true first greens dish, using easy to find spring foraged greens along with some of the early cultivated greens in gardens and in the farmers' markets that are ramping up this week (The Frontenac market in Verona will be open for its third week this Saturday at Prince Charles School, the Sharbot Lake Market makes its 2015 debut at Oso Beach, as does he McDonalds Corners market at the MERA schoolhouse)

Also, Saturday is opening day for the Seed to Sausage store – a food extravaganza dubbed the Day of the Pig.

This recipe celebrates all these things and can be cooked in minutes. It can be made with whatever is on hand or the whole day can be spent finding things to add to it.

For pasta I would recommend anything bite-sized, such as Fusilli, Rotini, Penne, or Farfalle (bow ties) the classic Primavera Pasta.

As far as the greens are concerned, the cooking depends on what you have. One of the unusual, and my new favourite, of the primavera greens, are spring stinging nettles. (see preparation instructions at the end)

As far as early cultivated greens go, asparagus is coming up now, and perhaps baby spinach is also available. There are no fresh peas right now, so I use frozen in this dish.

Ingredients -

250 grams pasta

greens – (spinach, kale, nettles, leek, wild leek, bok choy, green beans or whatever else you have)

peas

1 onion

2-4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp butter

red pepper flakes

parmesan cheese

bacon (or pancetta or guanciale)

Bring a large pot of salt water to a boil, and add the pasta.

Steam or boil asparagus, fiddleheads, green beans or bok choy in bite-sized pieces just until they are bright green and have softened but not wilted, and toss them in a colander under cold water. Set aside.

Mix a tablespoon of olive oil with a tablespoon of butter in a frying pan on medium high and add chopped onion. Lower the heat after a few minutes and add garlic and saute for 2 more minutes.

Add spinach and/or dained frozen peas, mix together and remove from heat. The spinach will melt into the onions.

When pasta is done, strain and run under water for a very short time to remove starch but not long enough to cool the pasta. Transfer to a serving bowl and mix in the steamed greens and onion mixture, red pepper flakes to taste and bit more olive oil.

Apportion the pasta on serving plates. Sprinkle with grated or shaved parmesan.

At this point in the preparation of this recipe I consulted Mike Mckenzie at Seed to Sausage about meat to toss on top at the very end with the parmesan. He recommended adding crisped side bacon, but said a more interesting option would be diced, pan fried pancetta (a relative of bacon, also made from pork bellies)

His top recommendation, however, and one that I will try this week, is Guanciale, which is a cured meat made from pork jowls. It is said to add a more varied and interesting flavour when “fried down to produce an unmistakable depth of fatty flavour” to quote Italytravelandlife.com

Serve with a glass of Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc.

Stinging nettles

This is not something that I do. My wife Martina dons rubber gloves and picks the nettles from a large patch at the edge of our property. They are best in the spring and should be avoided once they go into flower.

Keeping gloves on when she brings them in, she removes the woody parts from the bottom of the stem, leaving the top of the stem and the leaves intact, and runs cold water over them to clean off any dirt or sand.

The nettles can then be steamed, boiled or sauteed in olive oil until they are dark green and a bit crunchy. Once cooked, they no longer have any stinging properties, they taste good and are off the charts as far as protein and other nutrients are concerned.