Pasta con gli Asparagi - Pasta with Asparagus

It's asparagus season in Italy and we got a kilo of the good stuff from Terracina to whip up a good lunch with. To make this easy and delicious pasta dish for 2, you'll need:

200 g pasta, go for the tube type or the flat bow-ties.

150 g of asparagus tips

1 huge clove of garlic, bashed

glug of good olive oil

big knob of unsalted butter

freshly ground black pepper

two teaspoons of anchovy paste or fresh anchovy fillets

Heat a shallow frying pan with an inch or two of salted water and bring to simmering point. Blanche the asparagus tips in the water for 3-4 minutes (5 if they're really fat) then drain the cooking water from the asparagus into a saucepan. Keep the asparagus to one side.

Top up the saucepan with more hot water and bring to the boil. Drop in the pasta and stir. While your pasta is cooking, take the frying pan you used before and pour in a good tablespoon of olive oil and a knob of butter and heat until the butter froths, then drop in the bashed garlic clove and swirl around in the butter. 

Add 3-4 anchovy fillets or the anchovy paste

and stir until dissolved in the oil/butter mix. 

Once this is done, add the asparagus tips and cook on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Add a generous dose of black pepper.

Drain the pasta once cooked and add to the pan with the asparagus, coating the pasta in all the butter and oil. If necessary add a tablespoon of the cooking water to help coat everything. Add just the tiniest amount of grated parmesan if you want.