Shave Asparagus and Caramelized Onions Pasta

Super excited!  This past weekend I was in Madison again and I went to the first Dane County’s farmers market of the season.  It was a gorgeous day, with bright blue skies, sun and a slight breeze.  Since it is so early in the season there was little as far as vegetables go.  There were only a few stands with spinach, scallions and rhubarb.  Speaking of, rhubarb…is it really that common to eat a stalk of rhubarb as a snack?  When I said, “hey let’s get a snack at the farmers market before lunch”, I was thinking something along the lines of super awesome spicy cheese bread or one of the many delicious pastries that are available.  Not a stalk of rhubarb.  Since my raging sweet tooth couldn’t let me leave the market without a treat, I stopped and picked up a chocolate croissant from Graze before heading home.

Going to the farmers market always puts me in a spring time mood.  I start to cook more fresh and lighter foods rather than “stick to your ribs” winter dishes, such as stews or chili.  One spring vegetable that I happen to have in my refrigerator this week was asparagus.  My go to methods of cooking asparagus are to stir fry or roast it.  For my post, I decided to have a little bit more fun with the asparagus and make a shaved asparagus pasta dish.  As Kiki just found out, for my weekday pasta meals, I usually go pretty simple with a little olive oil and fresh parmesan.  This dish is no different.  It was the result of rummaging through my fridge and kind of making it up as I went.  The good news is that it is super tasty and can be done in less then 20 minutes.

Shaved Asparagus and Caramelized Onions Pasta

Ingredients

1 italian sausage link (bacon or pancetta are acceptable substitutes)
1 bundle of asparagus
½ onion
½ box of spaghetti (really any thicker long pasta will work…I would have liked to have used fettuccini but all I had was spaghetti)
2 garlic cloves, minced
~3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ½ tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
fresh parmesan, grated

1. Cut the onion in half and then into slices about ¼ of an inch wide.  Try to keep the strips approximately the same size.  At the same time heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan.
2. Once the pan and oil are hot, put the sliced onions into the pan and begin to cook them.  The goal is to caramelize these onions so after they begin to turn translucent you may have to reduce the heat to prevent them from charring.  Mine got a little toasty on the edges.
3. After the onions are mostly caramelized (medium brown color), I just pushed them off to the side and made room in the pan to cook the sausage.  Push the Italian sausage out of the casing and break it up into smaller pieces in the pan.  Kiki uses a spatula to hold the sausage down and a wooden spoon to pull of little pieces.
4. While the onions and sausage are still cooking, shave the asparagus.  For this I just used a vegetable peeler and ran it down the length of one stalk.  Once that piece was removed, I flipped the stalk over and did it again.  This left me with three pieces of similar widths.
5. Once the sausage and onions are almost done (sausage should be brown and possibly crispy on the outside), throw in the shaved asparagus and the minced garlic.
6. Cook the spaghetti noodles until they are al dente.
7. Check the asparagus.  If they are soft then reduce the heat until the noodles are done.  After which, drain the spaghetti and gently incorporate them into the asparagus mixture.
8. Drizzle with olive oil and top with the red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and fresh parmesan.

That is it!  This dish is a super simple weekday meal that you can easily throw together after a long day.  Many times I just swap in/add different vegetables like zucchini, bell peppers, or mushrooms.  The shaved asparagus is quite fun and it lightens the asparagus flavor in the dish, while the caramelized onions add a sweetness that offsets the spicy-ness of the sausage and red pepper flakes.  Yum!