Over the past week or so, I have been reading about lemon pasta recipes on a couple sites I follow. First came this one and then this one that added asparagus and goat cheese. My goodness, was my mouth watering. But, alas, I had no lemons so decided it was just not meant to be.
Then, eureka!, I remembered that tucked in my freezer were a couple little containers of lemon curd that I had made (two years ago?) for a Lemon-Swirled Cheesecake I made for some special occasion- the occasion escapes me now. Could I use lemon curd? The recipes I had found called for lemon zest and lemon juice (which lemon curd includes), but lemon curd has sugar in it, too. What was the worst that could happen? A semi-sweet and tangy pasta? That didn't sound too bad. So, I included some asparagus, left out the goat cheese, made some other minor adjustments and this is what we ate.
We all loved it and as long as I have lemon curd in my freezer, I will be making this pasta. The kids gobbled it up and were convinced there was cheese in it (which there is not).
Just a warning: You'll want to taste the pasta before putting it into the baking dish to make sure you've salted it properly, but BE CAREFUL. You may just eat a whole serving. You don't really have to bake it at all- you could serve it right away. I put it together in the morning, put it in the fridge once it cooled and baked it for supper. This worked just fine, too.
Baked Lemon Pasta with Asparagus (adapted from Pioneer Woman)
1 pound pasta, your choice
4 tbsp. butter
10-15 spears fresh asparagus, cut into 1 inch pieces (or the equivalent of frozen asparagus pieces)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp. lemon curd (or the zest and juice from one lemon)
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 tsp. salt
chopped parsley
Cook the pasta according to the directions and drain. In a large saucepan, melt butter and saute the asparagus and minced garlic until just tender. Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in lemon curd (or zest and juice) along with the sour cream and salt. Add drained pasta to the saucepan and stir until well-coated. Add parsley, combine and transfer to a greased 2-quart baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees, covered for 15 minutes. Take off the cover and bake another 10 minutes more. Pin It
Asparagus is SO GOOD for your developing babies brain!! Sounds yummy...I love that you made-do!
ReplyDeleteI think I like the sound of your recipe better than PW's. I think her's might have been TOO lemony but with the sweet curd, your's looks just right! And I just happen to have a lemon and asparagus languishing in the fridge...well, the lemon is languishing, anyway. The asparagus is perfectly fresh. Now I have to decide between this recipe and a spinach, asparagus, bacon, pasta recipe that I make. Hmmm...
ReplyDeletePosting Deb's recipe is on my blog agenda! I ate it for breakfast this morning, breakfast and lunch yesterday, supper the day before---you get the picture (no one else like it and I LOVED it).
ReplyDeleteI don't see you around today...hope all is well.
ReplyDelete