five spring pastas - by deb perelman
Monday, April 25, 2022
Good morning!
We just got back from a week in Delray, Florida for the kids’ spring break. Sun! Beach! Breeze! Diners! This was a much-needed summer preview and I returned missing cooking very much, and eager to dive back in. I absolutely love it when this happens, especially when it overlaps with much-awaited spring produce showing up at the market. Here are a few pastas that use what’s fresh and new right now, plus my favorite way to eat asparagus, two years and counting, a beloved family coffee cake that makes all weeks better, and so much more. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Cheers,
Deb
New: Perfectly cooked, crisp-tender, bright green asparagus doused in olive oil, lemon juice, crunchy salt, pepper flakes, and swooped through mayo (but you can use any dressing you like) is my favorite way to accidentally inhale a pound of spears. I can't stop making it, so I have to pass it on.
This pasta is always a massive hit for something so seemingly simple. Ricotta is dolloped in near the end but not stirred or cooked (because we love finding the unmixed pockets later) and then the whole dish gets a six-part finish: olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper, parmesan and slivers of mint. No sugar snaps yet? Use anything green you like, lightly cooked.
Comfort food at its prettiest -- a tall, bronzed torte of a spaghetti pie, wound with an abundance of cheese, black pepper and, if you so desire, greens as well. Those edges are my happy place.
This is the dish that converted me to shelled peas, some blended with parmesan, garlic and pine nuts, some left whole, all tangled with linguine for an especially pretty weeknight meal.
A 15-minute, 5-ingredient crispy-creamy pasta-and-greens dinner that wants to change the way we make ravioli forever, usually just in time to talk ourselves out of ordering pizza tonight.
It turns out, goat cheese makes a shockingly simple but effective creamy pasta sauce with asparagus and lemon, and since it takes only 20 minutes to make, you'll have more time leftover to read a book, take a walk, or, if you're me, obsess over WeCrashed.
My family's signature coffee cake is tall, plush, crisp with cinnamon sugar, studded with a quilt of chocolate chips, and never a bad idea
Do you know what goes really well with pasta? My everyday meatballs are one-bowl, one-pot, frying-free and have so much flavor, they work as a standalone dish or with a side of salad, and by "salad" I mean garlic bread. Want to see more? Come watch me make this on the Smitten Kitchen YouTube channel.
I’ve written two cookbooks and a third is on its way for this fall! I can’t wait to share it with you.
I've created a page on Smitten Kitchen with links to some of my favorite kitchen items, the ones I'm asked about the most. For each item, I've attempted to provide a range of shopping links so we're not just focusing on one giant retailer. I hope you find this page helpful. Let me know if there’s anything I’ve left off that you need.
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