This one has very few ingredients, so make sure they’re quality. Fresh pasta is a must here.
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup chopped asparagus
- 4 large fresh basil leaves
- 2 tbsp butter
- 6 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 3 slices of pancetta
That’s it.
Start by getting a pot of water for your pasta boiling with some salt.
First, render the pancetta a bit in a small pan. Just when they reach a nice light tan color (and before they get too crispy) remove them from the pan but leave the fat. Throw your chopped asparagus into the pancetta fat with a little bit of salt and pepper and cook quickly at a high temperature. You’re not looking to cook the asparagus the whole way through, just enough for them to pick up the flavor of the pork fat, salt, pepper and to tenderize a little bit.
At this point, dice the fresh basil leaves as fine as possible and measure out your other ingredients to have on hand. Once everything is ready and available for your use drop your pasta in the water.
Once the pasta is al dente, which if you’re using fresh pasta is going to be damn near immediate, drain the water out of the pasta pot. There’s two ways to do this. You can A) use a colander to slowly pour your pasta out while retaining about 1/8 of a cup of pasta water left in the pot or B) use a slotted spoon to hold back the pasta while you tip the pot and pour out the water to drain. Many people will judge you regardless of which route you take – I’m not one of them. End goal is pasta in your pot with about 1/8 of a cup of pasta water left in there – don’t care how you get there.
Return the pasta to the pot and cut the heat. Now, quickly drop all of the remaining ingredients you so carefully prepared ahead of time into this pot. Mix well, make everyone become friends. This should only take about 3 minutes max.
Pour into a bowl and serve immediately.