Recipe: quick tagliatelle with green asparagus and goat cheese

The season for white asparagus is almost over, but luckily green asparagus isn’t so strict. You can buy it almost all year round, sometimes flown in from a faraway country at a hefty price, but in summer it’s affordable and delicious when grown in the Netherlands. With some (Dutch?) goat cheese and lemon, you can make this super-quick pasta.

How to make tagliatelle with green asparagus and goat cheese

• Cut the asparagus into pieces of a few centimetres and discard the dried-out piece at the bottom of the stalk. An extra bonus: green asparagus doesn’t need to be peeled.
• Cook the pasta in plenty of boiling water until it is almost done – about three minutes before the cooking time stated on the package has elapsed. Add the asparagus and cook it along with the pasta for three minutes.
• While the pasta is cooking, loosen the soft goat cheese with olive oil, the zest of the lemon and the fresh herbs.
• Scoop the pasta from the pan into the bowl with the goat cheese mixture and stir vigorously until all the pasta is coated with a layer of sauce. Add another spoonful of pasta water if necessary to make the whole thing creamier.
• Drizzle some lemon juice over the pasta and season with pepper and salt.

Also read:

• I’ll have a fettuccine coupe like that
• Which sauce goes with which pasta?
• Homemade pasta: the best recipe and supplies