I love the versatility of pasta. There is always the option of looking in the fridge and deciding what type of pasta you can eat today and you can never go empty handed. Be it something as simple as pasta with garlic, olive oil and parmesan cheese or a dish with all the summer vegetables, pasta always pleases. And using whole wheat pasta has made it a fibre rich food.
Even though I am particular about the pasta shape that I use, sometimes I make do with what I have on hand. I really feel that the right shape makes a difference to how much you enjoy the pasta. So when there is a restaurant serving pasta that lets you choose the pasta shape for a dish, they're essentially making you choose your experience which might not be the best option for beginners. In my opinion, a good restaurant should make this decision for its customers. If it is a decision between linguine, fettuccine and tagliatelle, it is more understandable than the choice of linguine, penne, bow-tie and fusili for instance.
When I made this dish I was thinking about a warm pasta salad ... ok so I was thinking about a pasta with no sauce but lots of veggies and flavor. I quick-boiled the broccoli and thin asparagus in the pasta water before I put in the pasta. This saved a lot of time and my veggies looked crisp and green when the pasta was ready to eat. I used fresh lemon juice to perk the flavor and also added feta cheese. Using a slightly strong/flavored cheese will enhance the taste even if little is added.
✅ INGREDIENTS
- Tricolor fusili - 1 cup (can use regular fusili, bowtie)
- Thin asparagus (cut on a bias into 1 inch pieces) - 1/2 cup
- Broccoli florets - 1/2 cup
- Cherry tomatoes (sliced into halves) - 3/4 cup
- Fresh basil leaves (finely cut) - 1 tablespoon
- Chopped fresh garlic - 1 teaspoon
- Black Kalamata olives (chopped) - 2 tablespoons
- Feta cheese (crumbled) - 1 tablespoon
- Oilve Oil - 1 tablespoon
- Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
- Red chilli flakes - 1/2 teaspoon
- Salt to taste
✅ INSTRUCTIONS
- Boil 4 cups water for the pasta and add some salt to it. When it starts to boil, add the asparagus and cook for 20 - 25 seconds. Quickly remove from the water and set aside. Similarly cook the broccoli florets and once they look bright green (15 -20 seconds) remove them from the water and set aside. In the water, put the pasta to boil and cook as per package instructions till al dente. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons of the cooking water and drain the pasta.
- Heat a pan over medium heat and add olive oil, cherry tomatoes and garlic and cook till the tomatoes look a little soft. Then add the basil, salt, chilli flakes and cooked asparagus and broccoli and cook for a minute over high heat.
- Add the pasta, reserved cooking water, olives and lemon juice and stir for a minute.
- Adjust seasonings to taste and when done, sprinkle crumbled feta cheese and serve hot/warm.
Jyotsna
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