maccheroni alla chitarra vegetable carbonara

maccheroni alla chitarra alla “carbonara” di verdure maccheroni alla chitarra

TOTAL TIME: 45 minutes

MAKES: 4 to 6 servings

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Ingredients

Fine sea salt
1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
10 medium asparagus spears, trimmed
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon pine nuts
1/3 cup finely chopped shallot
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Grana Padano cheese plus more for serving
1 large egg
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound fresh maccheroni alla chitarra or dried chitarra pasta (available at some supermarkets and specialty stores)

Instructions

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add green beans and cook 2 minutes, then add asparagus; continue cooking until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes more. Using a fine-mesh sieve, remove vegetables from water (reserve water); run under cold water to stop cooking. Cut beans in half lengthwise. Cut asparagus in half crosswise, then quarter lengthwise.

In a large skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat; add pine nuts, shallot and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring frequently, 1 minute, then add beans and asparagus, stir to combine and remove from heat.

In a small bowl, whisk together cheese, egg, egg yolks, parsley and a generous grinding of pepper.

Return vegetable cooking water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until just tender, 2 to 3 minutes (if using dried pasta, cook until al dente). Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl; immediately add vegetable mixture and toss to combine, then add egg mixture and toss well to coat strands. Serve immediately, passing extra cheese and pepper at the table.

September 2012

keywords:

pasta, vegetarian

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Comments [4] | Add your comment

Eggs are good for you! I made this on a weeknight, home made pasta and all. It took awhile, but was well worth it. Even my finicky teenager loved it.
Posted: September 22, 2012 17:19 by julierichey
For vegetarians replace eggs with egg beaters (imitation egg) or just omit the eggs, add more cheese and a bit of the water from the asparagas/string bean/pasta to create a bit of a sauce to cover the pasta.

drbob: Sounds like you killed the recipe.

Posted: September 03, 2012 11:48 by shearwater
This looks and sounds terrific but WOW so many eggs! Dr. Bob, what might be substituted for all that yolk. Four yolks for 9 sounds workable but what about my vegan friends? Got an idea?

Posted: August 26, 2012 10:45 by colleenstella
We grabbed the 2012 annual pasta issue immediately, even though we have been very good at controlling our food mag acquisition habit these past years. Wow, so many great ideas. We settled on this one to use with fresh whole wheat pasta that we had to cut as fettuccine since Kitchen-Aid has decided that Americans only need lasagna, fettuccine and spaghetti choices in their 3 piece pasta roller attachment set. Really fresh pasta is easy and quick and much more nutritious if you go the whole wheat route. We did 1.5 lbs pasta for 9 people and added one whole egg to the recipe.

Instead of the normal green beans we went with the frozen french cut variety, much more delicate, and we picked up some of the thinnest asparagus we have ever seen, cut off the ends and slit them lengthwise about halfway up the stalk. The asparagus went into the salted boiling water first because the french cut green beans were quicker to cook. We used our Asian noodle sieve (what is that called exactly) to pluck out the asparagus, then did the beans, then plucked them out, then after a bit when the sauce was ready (I forgot to pick up shallots, so we used a small onion), we repeated with the pasta noodles. We cut off the tip end thirds of the asparagus and pulled on the remaining split ends to separate into halves after cooling them down in cold water.

My mother-in-law said we should have put in the whole pound of frozen string beans (we used one whole bunch of asparagus) instead of only half, for more color and taste. Next time.

The verdict: this one is a keeper!
-- drbob from drbobenterprises.com

Posted: August 26, 2012 10:00 by rjantzen