Lemony Pasta with Asparagus and White Beans #recipe from Molly MacRae

 

How many ways can we cook fresh springtime asparagus? To my mind, not enough to make those delicious green spears grow old. Here’s a quick, delicious pasta dish bright with lemon and garlic. The only thing I might change is to roast the asparagus rather than to sauté it. The dish is perfect as it is, and sautéing saves heating the oven (and the kitchen), but I do love roasted asparagus. A bit of panko sprinkled over the top would be a good touch, too. Also larger white beans and a more delicate short pasta than the beans and combination of shells, rotini, and rigatoni we had in the cupboard. But really, without those changes, it’s perfect. 

Lemony Pasta with Asparagus and White Beans

Adapted from Melissa Clark in The New York Times

 

Time: roughly 30 minutes

Serves: 4 to 6

Ingredients

1 lemon, plus more juice for serving

1 (15-ounce) can white beans, rinsed

1 shallot, finely diced, or 2 tablespoons finely diced red onion

3 garlic cloves (2 sliced thin, 1 finely grated)

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more to taste

Kosher salt

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound short pasta, such as campanelle, fusilli, farfalle

2 pounds asparagus, ends trimmed, stalks sliced into 1/2-inch pieces

2/3 cup coarsely chopped Italian parsley leaves

1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving

Black pepper

 

Directions

Grate the zest from the lemon into a small bowl (but large enough to hold the beans). Halve the lemon and squeeze the juice from half of it on top of the zest. Add rinsed beans, shallot or onion, grated garlic, red pepper flakes, and a large pinch of salt. Toss well. Drizzle in 1 tablespoon olive oil. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to boil. Add pasta and cook until just shy of al dente, about 2 minutes less than package directions.

Meanwhile, heat a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add remaining 3 tablespoons olive oil, then add asparagus. Sauté until asparagus is tender and starting to brown at the edges, 7 to 10 minutes. Add a big pinch of salt and the sliced garlic, and sauté until garlic is lightly golden, 1 to 2 minutes more.

Dip a coffee mug or glass measuring cup into the pasta water and scoop about 1/2 cup of it to use for the sauce. Drain pasta, shaking it well. Add pasta, bean mixture, parsley, and Parmesan to skillet and cook until beans are hot and the pasta is al dente. 

If the mixture looks dry, splash in some (or all) of the reserved pasta water. Squeeze remaining lemon half over pasta, toss, and taste for seasoning. Add more salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice to taste.

 

Coming in June 2025!

There’ll be Shell to Pay

Haunted Shell Shop book 2 

When she’s not selling seashells by the North Carolina seashore from her shell shop, Maureen Nash is a crime-solving sleuth with a ghost pirate for a supernatural sidekick . . .

Maureen is still getting used to life on Ocracoke Island, learning how to play the “shell game” of her business—and ghost whispering with the spirit of Emrys Lloyd, the eighteenth-century Welsh pirate who haunts her shop, The Moon Shell. The spectral buccaneer has unburied a treasure hidden in the shop’s attic that turns out to be antique shell art stolen from Maureen’s late husband’s family years ago.

Victor “Shelly” Sullivan and his wife Lenrose visit the shop and specifically inquire about these rare items. Not only is it suspicious that this shell collector should arrive around the time Maureen found the art, but Emrys insists that Sullivan’s wife is an imposter because Lenrose is dead. A woman’s corpse the police have been unable to identify was discovered by the Fig Ladies, a group who formed an online fig appreciation society. They’re meeting on Ocracoke for the first time in person and count Lenrose among their number, so the woman can’t possibly be dead.

But Lenrose’s behavior doesn’t quite match the person the Fig Ladies interacted with online. Now, Maureen and Emrys—with assistance from the Fig Ladies—must prove the real Lenrose is dead and unmask her mysterious pretender before a desperate murderer strikes again . . .

Writing a Margaret Welch

The Boston Globe says Molly MacRae writes “murder with a dose of drollery.” She’s the author of the award-winning, national bestselling Haunted Yarn Shop Mysteries and the Highland Bookshop Mysteries. As Margaret Welch, she writes books for Annie’s Fiction. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine and she’s a winner of the Sherwood Anderson Award for Short Fiction. Visit Molly on Facebook and Pinterest and connect with her on Instagram or Bluesky.