Spring Pasta Recipe
A quick spring pasta made with leftover noodles, market vegetables, egg, and a bit of avocado.
On cloudless, fog-less days, my kitchen door opens onto a sunny back patio. I get the occasional visitor - cats, bees, butterflies, big spiders. It's always a surprise. The last few days there have been four birds that stop by late in the morning to sit on branches near the kitchen window. They are tiny pom-poms with bodies no longer than my thumb. Sometimes they just sit and watch me, other times they peck at the window. This guy in particular is quite incessant.
He isn't at all scared of me, and I'm able to get quite close to the window to look at him. With my nose to the glass he's not more than an inch away. They stay for an hour or so, and then go on with their day elsewhere. I can't tell if they're baby birds, or just small. I bet one of you would know.
I really like having them around when I'm alone in the kitchen. They're funny and chirpy, and clearly friends or siblings. I was making this little pasta plate when they came by the other day. It's another leftover creation. I'm hooked on the Cipriani pastas - they're relatively pricey, but never disappoint. I had thin [cooked} egg noodles leftover from some Pasta al Limone I made the night before, and decided to throw this together. Noodles, whatever quick-cooking market vegetables were in the fridge, egg, and a bit of avocado. Worked out great. You might add some toasted nuts or breadcrumbs for crunch, or chopped olives, or a swirl of harissa, or lots of chopped herbs...similar to the quesadillas, there are a hundred ways to approach this. I can imagine a version made with soba noodles too.
Other news: Thank you all again for helping Super Natural Every Day debut at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller list. I'm very, very grateful for your support.
- I did a Q+A with Esther Sung at Epicurious here.
- And! I spent three days with the staff Whole Living magazine for an article in the May issue - it should be on the stands any day not. In the meantime you can check out the recipes here.
- Lastly, I'm excited to be adding a second event to my Portland/Seattle trip - I'll be signing/selling books at The Remodelista Local Seattle Market on Saturday, April 30th, from 11am to 4pm. There are more details here. Info about the other PNW events are here.
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Spring Pasta Recipe
I used thin, egg noodles here, but spaghetti, angel hair, or fettuccine would all work as well.
8 ounces / 225 g cooked, leftover pasta
2 eggs
fine grain sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon unsalted butter3 big handfuls of sliced asparagus, and/or pea shoots, or tiny broccoli trees, or shredded greens - anything quick cooking and fresh
chopped avocado
chopped herbs
Use your fingers to fluff up the leftover pasta a bit, so its not clumpy or stuck together. Set aside.
In a small bowl crack the eggs and beat them really well with a pinch of salt.
In a big skillet melt the oil and butter over medium high heat. If you're using a vegetable that might take longer to cook than others, add those to the pan - for example, asparagus or broccoli. Add a couple pinches of salt, stir, cover, and cook for a couple minutes. Until the vegetables are bright, and just cooked. Now stir in anything that just needs a quick flash of cooking - in this case pea greens, but chopped greens would go in at this point if you're using those. Stir, and cook just until tender - a minute or so. Pull about 1/3 of the vegetables out of the pan and set them aside.
Now, add the pasta to the skillet, and toss well. Once the pasta is hot, turn down the heat, wait a moment, then quickly stir in the eggs. Stir well, then cover the pan, remove from heat, and let everything sit for a minute. Uncover, give everything another toss, the egg should be cooked through. Taste, and adjust the seasoning before dividing between two plates. Top with the reserved vegetables, and some chopped avocado.
Serves 2.
Prep time: 5 minutes - Cook time: 5 minutes
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Comments
Love this fresh, green pasta dish. Nothing better at this time of the year.
Great article! And your feathered visitors are Western bushtits....so cute!
I love your online recipes and try most of them. I recently order both SNC and SNED and love the format, photos and recipes. I am not vegetarian but I guess a flexitarian. I do cook vegetarian at least 2-3/week and vegan about 1/week. Your books are an inspiration and I have so many new recipes to try with the grains and flours in my pantry. Thank you for these!!!
Just got my issue of Whole Living featuring you! Beautiful pictures (as usual). And lovely article too. Trying this pasta this evening! Thanks again for this blog, both your amazing cookbooks and for being you. :)
Another fantastic recipe that makes me want to play with fresh green flavours. Your new book arrived in the UK post this week! Woohoo! I think I have looked at every single page at least twice already. Being a healthy bread fiend with a Swedish husband my first recipe from it had to be the rye soda bread! Perfect! Words can't describe how wholesome and great tasting it is. And I'm not even joking. You, my dear, absolutely rock!
Sunday morning, flipping through my new Whole Living and this is how I discovered 101 cookbooks! Great and fresh pasta recipe. Definitely on menu tonight. I have leftover almond meal, I think I will sprinkle that on top. I have little finches outside my kitchen window. They look sort of the same, but they have yellow or red/orange bellies. I feed them nyger seed and they swarm! Thank you Heidi for your beautiful work!
OMG, could those birds BE any cuter?! So sweet. The pasta looks delicious, too - I will definitely try it! Congrats on all of your success, Heidi, it's very well-deserved! :)
Those little birds are pretty amazing. Lucky you.
This looks every bit as good as it sounds! Love your photographs and your recipes of course. Any time time you can combine fresh asparagus and/or peas with pasta, it's a beautiful thing as far as I'm concerned. Great idea adding avocado too. I'll have to come up with a sauce for the other family members who unfortunately for me don't share same appreciation for simple and fresh meals like this gem from Heidi.
You have the perfect company! How adorable that little bird ! I would peek through your kitchen window too if i was a bird teeheehee Did you give her/him any food ?
I have the same photos of some of my own pom-pom friends! Amazing how they aren't afraid to let you get so close to them on the other side of the glass, isn't it? I've observed them tirelessly attempt to fly through every window of my house for hours on end. They've nested just outside our slider.
Pea shoots are so trendy right now! I just did a spring pasta with an avocado cream sauce. You'd love it, Heidi!
That first photograph of your bird friend is one of the most adorable photographs I have EVER seen. EVER. I laughed out loud. alone, in my room, at the cuteness. I think my roommates know I'm not studying. The pasta also looks delectable :) - long time reader from the yukon!
the little bird is so adorable and fluffly and by the way the pasta looks really refreshing
Hi Heidi....the birds are too sweet! Just starting birding here in CT! It's great fun. I can't find Pom Poms in my two books I just bought at our library's book sale. Maybe they're CA birds. The recipe sounds yummy too.
That pasta looks so good! And what great pictures of those cute little birds!
The birds are so cute! We used to have a family of doves in the tree outside our house and I would sit on the steps for days watching them. I was hoping to make it out to Berkeley yesterday for your event but sadly was a bit too exhausted after running my first marathon. I have your oatcakes in the oven right now though, and I am sure they will not disappoint! Your book is beautiful by the way.
Yes, bushtits I am sure... recipe looks great! I know what I am having for dinner tonite!
Yes, they are bushtits! So cute. They flit around in flocks, constantly calling to each other. They're often in my yard picking bugs out of the trees.
This looks delicious - maybe even good enough to venture out into the Portland drizzle this morning to get some veggies from the Farmer's Market :) I have been cooking my way through Super Natural Every Day. I've made the avocado salad about 10 times now and I can't get enough of it. I subbed hard boiled eggs for the avocados the other day and it came out great. I blogged about it here. HS: Genius Morgan!
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