Pasta Primavera

By GAIL BLAKELY

You may be surprised to learn that pasta primavera did not originate in Italy. In this country, back in the 1970s, there were two distinct types of Italian pasta and sauce categories: southern and northern, one being red, the other white. That was until Sirio Maccioni, chef at New York City’s famed restaurant, Le Cirque, put a new dish on his menu in 1975.

Primavera translates to spring—literally “first green.” Thus it calls for early spring vegetables: asparagus, broccoli, English peas and snap peas, perhaps fava beans. The original recipe, based on “fancy restaurant food,” was a bit complicated. It called for blanching each vegetable separately, then tossing them with a little garlic, some butter and olive oil and cream. Partially cooked fresh pasta was added, and mixed until it just finished cooking in the sauce, then served with a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmigiana Reggiano cheese.

Craig Claiborne’s recipe in “The New New York Times Cookbook,” published in 1979, is indeed rather intimidating. It includes the vegetables mentioned above, but adds zucchini, green beans, mushrooms and diced tomatoes, along with chopped fresh basil and parsley. Clearly stated in step 4 are the instructions to cook each vegetable separately, sauté the mushrooms in another pan, sauté the tomatoes with garlic in yet another, then cook the pasta. Finally, you melt the butter in a “utensil large enough to hold the drained spaghetti and vegetables,” add chicken broth, cream and grated cheese, then the pasta, finally the tomatoes, more cream if needed, and stir in some pine nuts.

Mr. Claiborne described the dish quite eloquently: “This inspired blend of pasta and crisp tender vegetables such as zucchini, mushrooms, broccoli, and green beans, is a creation of Italian origin that flourishes in one of New York’s most popular luxury restaurants, Le Cirque. Although the dish is called spaghetti primavera—spaghetti with a springtime air—it is served all year long at Le Cirque and can be reproduced easily in the home.”

Let’s assess the equipment needed: one large pot of boiling water for cooking the vegetables ‘til tender-crunchy (“al dente”), a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking, a colander to drain them, towels to dry the vegetables, a skillet for the tomatoes and the mushrooms, another for the garlic and sauce, perhaps another large pot for the pasta (you don’t want to cook it in the vegetable water as it will give it a slightly “off” color), and of course, a chef’s knife and a cutting board for prepping the garlic and the vegetables. And a grater for the cheese, and spaghetti bowls for serving.

That’s a lot of effort—and time—for a home cook. In subsequent years, the recipe was tweaked by such esteemed food writers such as Molly O’Neill, who published it in 1992 in her “New York Cookbook.” Her version is a little more streamlined, yet still very tasty. Her instructions are as follows:

“Trim a small bunch of broccoli into florets, quarter two small zucchini and cut into one-inch pieces, peel and trim four asparagus spears and cut into thirds, cut one and a half cups of green beans into one-inch pieces. Set aside one half cup of fresh or thawed frozen peas. Cook the first four vegetables in boiling, salted water until crisp-tender, about four minutes. Add the peas. Cook one minute more. Drain the vegetables in a colander. Then refresh them in cold water. Drain again and set aside. (In a skillet) sauté two cups of thin-sliced mushrooms in a tablespoon of olive oil, along with a teaspoon of finely minced fresh red or green chili pepper—or use one half teaspoon of dried red-pepper flakes. Sauté for about two minutes. Add three more tablespoons of olive oil, a teaspoon of minced garlic, three cups of seeded, diced ripe tomatoes (with juices reserved) and cook rapidly for about four minutes. Add one quarter cup of chopped parsley and six fresh basil leaves, chopped. Stir and set aside. Cook one pound of spaghetti or spaghettini until just al dente. In a large, non-reactive pot, melt a half-stick of butter; add one half cup of heavy cream and two thirds cup of grated parmesan cheese. Stir constantly until heated through and blended. Add the spaghetti and toss to blend. Add half of the vegetables and the reserved tomato juice. Toss and stir for five minutes over low heat. If sauce seems dry, add extra cream, but the sauce should not be soupy. Adjust seasonings. Add two thirds cup of toasted pine nuts and give one final toss. Spoon some of the tomato-mushrooms mixture over the top and serve.”

Over time, this dish has become part of our cultural lexicon. It is now a staple menu item across the spectrum of restaurants, such as fine dining establishments, which pride themselves on their handmade artisan pasta and seasonal spring vegetables—including “mini” versions of some of the cooler weather crops. Over the past half a century, the chain restaurants recognized its popularity, and started to serve it year-round alongside bottomless baskets of breadsticks.

If you want a dish that really epitomizes “spring,” I suggest the following recipe, which is a more modern version, from Melissa Clark, who also writes for The New York Times. In place of heavy cream, she substitutes crème frâiche, adds a shot of lemon juice and grated zest and suggests using some of the pasta cooking water to make everything “nice and creamy.” I like her addition of broccolini instead of the larger heads of broccoli, and of fava beans, only available here in the spring.

The Pasta Primavera You’ve Always Wanted: Lighter, Greener, Springier

(adapted from Melissa Clark)

12 oz fava beans in their pods, or 4 oz shucked fava beans

12 oz English peas in their pods, or 4 oz shucked peas

Kosher salt

8 oz asparagus, woody ends removed, stalks cut on a sharp bias into 1-inch pieces

6 oz snap peas, strings removed, cut on a sharp bias into one half-inch slices

8 oz broccolini, woody ends removed, cut on a sharp bias into 1-inch pieces

4 TBSP unsalted butter

2 TBSP extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving

2 whole cloves garlic, lightly smashed with the side of a knife

3 oz pine nuts

1 lb fresh egg pasta, such as fettuccine, penne, or gemelli

6 oz crème fraîche

2 tsp finely grated zest and 1 tsp fresh juice from 1 lemon

½ cup each: packed leaves of fresh parsley and fresh basil

Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, to taste

Freshly ground black pepper

Mince the parsley and basil leaves and set aside; if using fava beans and peas in their pods, shuck beans and peas from pods, keeping beans and peas separate (discard pods). Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Working with one vegetable at a time, blanch favas, peas, asparagus, snap peas, and broccolini in boiling water for 1 minute each, transfer to ice bath to cool, then transfer to a paper towel–lined tray and pat dry. Remove and discard skin from each individual fava bean; set vegetables aside. Empty pot, refill it with fresh water, season generously with salt, and return to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a 3- to 4-quart saucepan or a 12-inch skillet, heat butter, olive oil, garlic, and pine nuts over low heat until gently sizzling. Cook, swirling pan constantly, until pine nuts just start to brown and the garlic aroma is very strong–do not let butter brown; remove it from heat occasionally if it starts to sizzle too rapidly. Discard garlic cloves and add blanched vegetables to pan and toss to combine; remove from heat.

When water is boiling, add pasta and cook until just shy of al dente, about 1 minute total for most fresh pasta; drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Transfer pasta to pan with vegetables and add crème fraîche, lemon zest, lemon juice, basil, and parsley. Set over high heat and cook, stirring and tossing constantly and adjusting the consistency as necessary with a few splashes of the starchy pasta water, until liquid reduces to a creamy sauce. The sauce should coat the pasta and leave a creamy trail on the bottom of the pan when you drag a wooden spoon through it.

Off heat, stir in a generous shaving of fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, drizzling with olive oil and sprinkling with freshly ground black pepper and grated Parmigiano-Reggiano at the table.

Lastly, I offer a more streamlined dish, the one that appears in the accompanying photographs. Not quite spring as I write, yet this is comforting, and mildly celebratory, nonetheless. Remember that this is a dish with a history of less than half a century. Can you think of anything else you’d rather eat on a warm(ish) spring evening?

Simplified Classic
Pasta Primavera

(adapted from simplyrecipes.com)

½ lb angel hair pasta or spaghetti

1 small bunch broccolini, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 small zucchini, diced

4 asparagus spears

½ cup English peas, fresh or frozen

½ cup snow peas

3 minced garlic cloves

3 Roma or other paste tomatoes, seeded and diced

12 basil leaves, chopped

4 TBSP butter

¼ cup chicken broth (use vegetable broth for vegetarian option)

½ cup each: heavy cream and freshly grated parmesan cheese

Get a large pot of water boiling and salt it well; fill a large bowl with ice water. Boil the broccolini for 1 minute, then add the asparagus and boil another minute. Add the snow peas and boil for 30 more seconds. Remove all the vegetables and plunge them into the ice water; once they’re cool, drain in a colander. (If you want, you can save the water in the pot and boil your pasta in the same pot you boiled the vegetables in, or you can start over and boil new water.) In a large sauté pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat; when the butter is hot, add the garlic and zucchini and sauté 1 minute. Add the diced tomatoes and sauté another 2 minutes, stirring often; pour in the chicken or vegetable broth and turn the heat to high to bring it to a boil. Add the cream and toss in all the vegetables you boiled, plus the peas; stir to combine, turn the heat down, until the cream-chicken broth mixture is just simmering, not boiling. Add parmesan and stir to combine; if the sauce seems too thick – it should be pretty thick, but not gloppy—add some more chicken broth, cream or water. Boil the angel hair pasta—it will only need 1-2 minutes to cook. With tongs, transfer cooked pasta to sauce and vegetables and stir to combine; add the basil now, and taste for salt, adding a pinch if needed and grinding black pepper over the pasta. Serve immediately in heated pasta bowls.