Love at first sight - pasta with asparagus and pancetta

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach and my wife knows that 💚. A few days ago, she made me one of my favourite pasta dishes - a pasta with asparagus and pancetta.

A duel between pancetta and asparagus? No, it's love at first sight. Pasta with asparagus and pancetta is one of those dishes that is very quick to prepare and tastes delicious. The unique flavour of asparagus, intertwined with pancetta, all captured in a delicate cream sauce. A unique taste, yummy! You can any pasta of your choice, it can be full grain or even some cheese ravioli or potatoes gnocchi. Let's roll up our sleeves and prepare this great lunch, ready in max 20 minutes.

Ingredients for 4 people:

• 400 g asparagus (weigh cleaned)
• 30 g butter (I used olive oil)
• (red) pepper
• 100 g pancetta
• 220 g sour cream
• salt if necessary (the pancetta is already salted)
• Parmesan cheese
• 400 g of any pasta (100 g per person)

Put a large pan of water on the stove and pour in the water, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the ingredients for the sauce, which will be cooked while the pasta is cooking.

First, rinse and slightly dry the asparagus under water and cut it into pieces of any length, discarding the woody parts.

Cut the slices of pancetta into small slices.

Melt the butter (or olive oil) in a small pan. Add the sliced pancetta and fry it a little until it changes colour. Take the pancetta out and add the asparagus.

Cook over a moderate heat for about 3 minutes. Stir occasionally in between. Add the sour cream, stir, and cover with a lid. Cook at a gentle boil for a further 5 minutes to allow the flavours to combine. Salting is not necessary in principle, as the pancetta is already salted, but you can salt the sauce to taste at the end. Add also the red pepper.

By the time we have cooked the sauce, the pasta has been probably also already and we have drained it.

We now have two options, either to mix the pasta and the asparagus and pancetta sauce together in the pot in which we cooked the pasta, or to put a portion of pasta on each plate and pour the sauce over it. The choice is yours.
You can grate a little Parmesan cheese over the top, if you like. I love it and I suggest you not to skip this part😊

And, of course, a bowl of salad should not be missing for a great lunch.

Thanks for reading,
feel free to leave a comment, I will be glad to reply to.
Best regards, @miljo76