Asparagus and Goat Cheese Pasta

It’s funny where we get our recipes from now isn’t it. When my Mom used to want to try something different for dinner she would ask her friends or go through her collection of cookbooks. Now we ask on Twitter, gather from Facebook, or one of the many online recipe sites. Every once in a while you will get a recipe from a source that is unexpected. This recipe came from just that way. My sister and I were talking and she mentioned that she had tried a great recipe and that we should really try it. When she told me the ingredients I knew I had to.

You see last month I was contacted by the wonderful people at Iles de France the cheese company and was invited to be a part of their cheese of the month club. How could I refuse that??? The only catch was that they would send me and about 20 other food bloggers a specific type of cheese each month and we would need to use it in something and do a blog post about it. I happen to love Ile de France cheese anyway so this was a no brainer for me. Unfortunately the first month’s cheese went to waste in my broken refrigerator (when we went to PA for Spring Break our fridge shut down and we lost everything in it…including the cheese). This month was much better for me and they sent me a 10.5 ounce log of goat cheese. And from this recipe I knew just what I was going to do with it!!!

This was a quick and delicious meal for a busy week night. It took only about 20 minutes to pull together. You can use less goat cheese. We used the amount we did because we had it!

Asparagus and Goat Cheese Pasta - (Adapted from the LCBO Food & Drink Magazine)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1lb trimmed thick green asparagus
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1 lb fresh pasta, tagliatelle or fettuccine (we used penne, obviously not fresh, it's what we had)
• 1/4 cup grated firm young, tangy goat's cheese such as crottin (we used a 10.5 ounce log of chevre chopped up )

1) Peel the asparagus and then cut the stalks into 3/4 inch pieces keeping the tips whole

2) Melt the butter in a large frying pan over med. heat, add the garlic and asparagus and season with garlic powder and salt and pepper. Lower the heat slightly and gently cook the asparagus, turning occasionally until tender.

3) Cook the pasta until al dente

4) When the pasta is cooked, skim 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid from the pot and set aside. Drain the pasta and then add it with the reserved cooking water to the cooked asparagus in the pan. Stir together over low heat until well mixed and the pasta is coated with the sauce.

5) Place the pasta in warmed serving bowls and top with the cheese.

We also added a little grated Parmesan on the top.

As Always…

Happy Entertaining!!!

Judy
www.nofearentertaining.com