The Secret Recipe Club is a relatively new fun way to meet new blogging friends. Everyone is assigned a blog. We're to choose a recipe from that blog, make it and post it at our assigned time along with a link to all the other Secret Recipe Club member's blogs. Sounded like a lot of fun to me. And, it was. But, I had a heckuva time selecting a recipe. The blog I was assigned was CookwithSara@blogspot.com. I kept reading and reading and reading and I wanted to make every other recipe. How to choose. Sara's recipes have loads of great flavors and most of them are perfect for weeknights. They're not too easy and not too tough. Just perfect. I finally narrowed my choices down to three. Then, I realized I had a bunch of asparagus that really had to be used up. The Pasta Gorgonzola with Asparagus and Peas it was.
What did we think? We absolutely loved this. The only change I made was to thicken the sauce a bit more so it'd cling to the pasta a little better. Typically, we'd eat this as a vegetarian meal with a salad and a glass of wine but as Sara says in her blog, if you're not into the vegetarian thing, just serve this as a side dish.
Pasta Gorgonzola with Asparagus and Peas
Ingredients:
8 oz penne or gemeli
2 T butter (I increased this from 1 T)
2 T flour (I increased this from 1 T)
1 c chicken or vegetable broth
1 c frozen green peas
1/2 lb asparagus, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
1/2 c crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
1/3 c half and half
Directions:
Start your pasta water. In a large skillet, melt the butter.
When the butter is melted, stir in the flour.
Start your pasta cooking. Allow the flour to cook for a few minutes
and slowly stir in the chicken stock.
Cook until it's slightly thickened. Add the cheese and stir until it melts in. Add the half and half. When the pasta has a minute to cook, add the asparagus and peas to the pasta water. Drain the pasta vegetables and toss them into the skillet with the sauce.
Toss to coat the pasta.
Thank you Sara for a fantastic recipe! I'm looking forward to finally being able to follow your blog :-)
If you'd like to be a part of the Secret Recipe Club, here's the link: Secret Recipe Club.
I am so incredibly fortunate to have Connie in my life. He's the most curious man I've ever met. How does it work? Where does that road go? Case in point. On our recent trip to Rosewind Farms, we saw a mountain of dirt a ways away. What is it and where's the road that leads back to it. The entire trip to Huber Winery was spent surmising on it's origin and checking each drive for potential access. We finally narrowed it down to a drive down the road and around the corner. It was wide enough for big trucks and had a gate. On our return home, Google Earth came through. We were correct. Score.
But, I digress. One of the areas where I'm most lucky is that we have such similar taste. There are very few foods that either of us doesn't like. Since I'm the menu maker, those that I'm just lukewarm about don't show up often. Connie's not so lucky. He'd rather not have soup. But it's a regular on our menus because I love it. When it comes to most everything else, our taste is remarkably similar. He jokes that he knew he'd met THE ONE when he opened the meat drawer in my fridge and found it stuffed full of cheese. We counted our cheese stash the other day and had 18 different kinds of cheese. How much fun is that? How many people do you know who typically have a dozen tins of anchovies in their pantry? Yes, we do.
Needless to say, we love variety in our meals. I try and fix a seafood and/or fish, a chicken, a meatless, a pork and a beef dinner each week. And, since we both eat about any vegetable, I regularly experiment with new recipes.
There are two ways I fix asaparagus, however, that show up with great frequency.
One side note here - you probably noticed the potatoes in the photo above. I tried adding roasted garlic cloves to the potato stacks cooked in muffin tins. Major yum!
Asparagus with Teriyaki Dipping Sauce
steamed asparagus spears
mayonnaise or sour cream
Kikkoman teriyaki marinade and sauce
Mix the mayonnaise or sour cream with enough teriyaki sauce to suit your taste.
Dip the asparagus spears in the sauce.
This is also great with steamed green beans.
Grilled Asparagus
asparagus spears
italian dressing (we prefer robust or zesty)
Blanch asparagus spears.
Drain them and pour Italian dressing over the spears. Put the pan aside for about 30 minutes.
Grill the spears until they're done.
My brother, John. makes this for most of our family parties. He's really the grill meister in the family. And, he usually doesn't use a recipe... Fortnately, with a list of ingredients, I can usually come up with a reasonable recreation. This recipe is one where I combined ideas - John's grilled asparagus and a friend's chicken marinade. Rich and Juli had a big cookout for the folks who helped with the church rummage sale. He grilled chicken that was some of the best I'd had. I asked for the recipe and was amazed when he told me - Wishbone Robusto Italian Dressing. Believe me, if you've never used the stuff as a marinade, you've really been missing out. It makes amazing marinated mushrooms, chicken, flank steak. Pretty much any meat or vegetable can be marinated in the dressing.
Grilled Asparagus
one bunch asparagus
1/2 c Wishbone Robusto Italian Dressing
Blanch the asparagus in boiling water. Remove and place in a bag or container with the dressing. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Grill for about 5 minutes before serving.
