Spaghetti with Primavera Sauce (Zen)

[Bastet]

This is another recipe from my favouritest vegetarian cookbook. It's a bit of fart-arsing around, but it's worth it, trust me!

Preparation time: 25 minutes
Total cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4-6

500g (1 lb) spaghetti
155g (5 oz) fresh asparagus
1 cup (175g/5 2/3 oz) frozen broad beans
40g (1 1/3 oz) butter
1 celery stick, sliced
1 cup (155g/5 oz) frozen green peas
1 1/4 cups (315ml/10 fl oz) cream
1/2 cup (50g/1 2/3 oz) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper

1. Add the spaghetti to a pan of rapidly boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and return to pan.

2. While the spaghetti is cooking, cut the asparagus into small pieces. Bring a medium pan of water to the boil, add the asparagus and cook for 2 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove from pan and plunge into cold water.

3. Plunge the broad beans into a pan of boiling water. Remove at once and cool in cold water. Drain and allow to cool completely. Peel the skin from the beans.

4. Heat the butter in a heavy-based frying pan. Add the celery and stir for 2 minutes. Add the peas and cream and cook for another 3 minutes. Add the asparagus, broad beans, Parmesan, salt and pepper and bring to the boil; cook for 1 minute. Add the sauce to the drained spaghetti and toss to combine. Serve spaghetti immediately in warmed pasta bowls.

NOTE: Use different vegetables, such as leeks, zucchinis (courgettes) and sugar snap peas, and add some fresh chopped dill or basil if you like.

My notes: You can use different pasta instead of spaghetti - I use spinach fettuchine. Again, low fat/reduced fat cream works just as well - the sauce may be a little runnier, but it tastes just as great. If you prefer, you can leave the salt and pepper until after serving - some people would rather add their own to taste.

I'm not usually a fan of cream-based pasta sauces, but this one is to die for!!

[Green Gaia]

Oh that sounds good!

What kind of 'broad beans' do you mean?

[evearael]

Sounds similar to what we've made in the past. I don't care much for cream sauce either, except when my husband sautes (sp?) tomatoes with spices and tosses it in (drool!). We tend to use wheat tri-colored rotini instead of spagehtti.

[Bastet]

Originally Posted by Maize

Oh that sounds good!

What kind of 'broad beans' do you mean?

Um, I dunno...we just call them broad beans here lol. They're light green on the outside, bright green once the skin is gone, kinda big (about the size of a quarter only bean shaped), kinda flat, and they have a really tough skin on them (which is why you blanch them and peel the skin off for this recipe). If I can find an alternate name for them I'll let you know. *googling as I type*

*edit* Eureka! Apparently you guys call them lima beans.

[Green Gaia]

Oh, ok lima beans! Good thing I asked, I was imagining something like butterbeans.