Blogging Marathon# 33: Week 2/ Day 2
Theme: Favorite Celebrity Chef Recipes
Dish: Giada’s Pasta with Asparagus & Mascarpone cheese
My Celebrity chef of choice for Day 2 of BM# 33 is Giada De Laurentils. She is an Italian chef and is a regular on Food Network. Her Italian recipes look doable and easy to make with every-day available ingredients.
I learnt a lot of Italian recipes watching Giada’s shows. One of the fancy ingredient I started to buy after watching her is Mascarpone cheese. She uses it in both sweet & savory preparations like cheesecakes, pastas etc. I buy a tub on mascarpone cheese when on sale and use it in various dishes.
Today’s dish is Giada’s Farfalle with Asparagus & Mascarpone. I was making this for my sister who doesn’t eat mushrooms, so I used peppers instead. Also I jazzed up the recipe with sauteed onion and garlic for added flavor. Addition of walnuts was the highlight for this recipe and I really enjoyed the crunch. Final dish was colorful, creamy and filling.
- 1 lb Pasta . (Farfalle was used in the original recipe, but any short cut pasta would taste good)
- 1 Peppers - medium, chopped
- 1 bunch Asparagus - cut into 1" pieces
- 1 Onion - medium, thinly sliced
- 2 ~ 3 cloves Garlic - minced
- 1 cup cheese Mascarpone
- ¾ cup Walnuts - toasted
- ¼ cup Parmesan Cheese
- a pinch Nutmeg - freshly grated
- 1 tsp Red Pepper Falkes (or to taste)
- to taste Salt Pepper &
- Cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve 1cup of pasta cooking water for later.
- Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a saute pan, add the onions and cook until translucent. Next add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
- Add peppers and cook for 3~4 minutes. Next add chopped asparagus and cook until both peppers and asparagus are almost tender but should still have a bite.
- Add the drained pasta and mix well.
- Add mascarpone cheese, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Mix well and serve topped with toasted, chopped walnuts and parmesan cheese.
Sapana Behl
Very flavorful and delicious pasta , loved the addition of walnuts…
Sayantani
wow what a wonderful recipe. bookmarked for the coming winter months.
Harini-Jaya Rupanagudi
I agree that the addition of walnuts adds to the crunch and extra of everything enjoyable!!
Manjula Bharath
wow loving this combo 🙂 looks super yummy and sounds very interesting 🙂 wud love to finish the whole bowl !!
Yes Cook
I am really hoping some magic takes place and I get to taste it.Thanks for sharing.
Global Tastes & Travels Inc.
i just came from the supermarket with some fresh asparagus – but I;m out of marsscapone:(
Saras
This look so delicious with tempting colors..
vaishali sabnani
Super dish and even more super clicks..loved the colorful dish..very pretty.
PJ
Very flavorful pasta recipe!
Priya Srinivasan
Lovely combination of colors n flavors!!! 🙂 Very colorful, indeed!! 🙂
Nalini's Kitchen
Sounds very interesting,looks so colorful..
Jayanthi Padmanabhan
Love Mascarpone and this pasta has everything going for it. Lovely flavours.
Srivalli
A new author and a newer dish..very lovely pics!