Fast Recipes

Pasta and greens

A quick weeknight dish filled with seasonal green vegetables and lots of parmesan.

By Alice Storey
  • Serves 4
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Use any green vegetables at hand - broad beans, kale or broccoli in season would all be great. Skip the bacon and it becomes vegetarian.

Ingredients

  • 150 ml pouring cream
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 60 gm parmesan, finely grated, plus extra to serve
  • 400 gm ribbon pasta, such as mafalda or lasagnette
  • 30 ml olive oil
  • 2 rashers streaky bacon, thinly sliced
  • 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1 bunch asparagus, thinly sliced diagonally
  • 150 gm peas
  • 2 small zucchini, thinly sliced into rounds
  • Finely grated rind of 1 lemon, juice of ½
  • ¼ cup (loosely packed) basil, coarsely chopped
  • 1 tbsp coarsely chopped oregano

Method

Main
  • 1
    Whisk together cream, yolks and parmesan in a small bowl and season to taste.
  • 2
    Cook pasta in a saucepan of boiling salted water until al dente (6-7 minutes).
  • 3
    Meanwhile, heat oil in a large frying pan, add bacon and fry until starting to crisp (1-2 minutes). Add garlic and sauté until tender (1-2 minutes), then add asparagus, peas and zucchini, and cook until bright green (1-2 minutes). Drain pasta, reserving 100ml pasta water, add pasta to pan and toss to combine. Remove from heat, add cream mixture, lemon rind and juice and 50ml pasta water, toss to combine, adding a little extra pasta water if necessary to reach desired consistency, toss in herbs, season to taste and serve with extra parmesan and cracked pepper.