Asparagus Pasta Aglio Olio

Happy Sunday evening, all!Preston and I made an awesome simple dinner tonight,

I took inspiration from a simple dish one of my LA visitors had last weekend. She’s a picky eater with some dietary restrictions, so she eats very simple dishes. One of my favorite Sacramento restaurants, Paesano’s, was really understanding of her modifications and whipped up a simple pasta dish with olive oil and asparagus. It looked GREAT.

So I decided to make my own version! This simple dish is made special because of a few great ingredients: fantastic wild mushroom & sage flavored olive oil I bought at The Chef’s Olive Mix in Old Sacramento last weekend and farmer’s market asparagus.

serves 4
1/2 pound whole wheat pasta
2 T Earth Balance margarine
2 T olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 bunch asparagus, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t crushed red pepper
1/4 C walnuts, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Boil water for the pasta. In a large nonstick skillet, melt the Earth Balance with the oil. Add the onion and asparagus, season with red pepper, salt and black pepper, and saute until the onions are soft. Mix in the garlic and walnuts and continue to cook until the asparagus is cooked to your preference (I like mine with just a little crunch remaining.)

Toss the onion and asparagus mixture with the pasta and serve hot! It was flavorful, light, and filling.

We paired it with a glass of wine from La Clarine Farm, an El Dorado County winery my friends and I visited last weekend. My sweet and generous friends bought me a bottle of this amazing Mourvedre, and it’s just as good as I remembered (I’m still sipping on mine now…)

Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 349; Calories from Fat: 162; Total Fat: 18.0g; Saturated Fat: 2.9g; Sodium: 55mg; Total Carbohydrates: 41.5g; Dietary Fiber: 8.0g; Sugars: 2.6g; Protein: 10.3g

Happy dining!