Late April/May is asparagus season here in Italy and the best of all are the wild asparagus (in fact, I will be heading for our woods today to hunt them). Now is the time to savor wild asparagus frittata (Italian omelette), risotto, soups and countless types of pasta dishes. If you are in Italy at this time of year, look for asparagi di bosco (“asparagus from the woods”) dishes on the menu! This is a delectable dish which I had rescently at Ristorante Cacciatore in Spello.
The cook shared the recipe. This is how she told me to replicate her masterpiece:
Ingredients:
- 4-6 oz ground veal
- 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese (and I recommend getting the best you can for this dish!)
- olive oil, q.b. (“quanto basta” or “as much as you need”)
- 1 can of tomatoes, 1 lb 16 oz.
- 1 medium-sized carrot
- 1/2 stalk celery
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 small white or yellow onion
- a generous bunch of wild asparagus (well… you might have to buy the garden variety if you can’t find them in the nearest woods!)
- 1 lb fettuccine pasta (note: 1 lb serves 5 persons)
For the sauce: cover saucepan with olive oil and when oil is hot but not smoking, add finely-diced carrot, celery, onion, whole garlic (to be removed when serving sauce) and asparagus, washed and cut into pieces about 1 in. long. Simmer til onion is golden. Add tomatoes and cook uncovered about 15 mins til most of water (from tomatoes) has evaporated.
To make the polpettine (or “baby meatballs” – about marble-size): Mix ground veal with abundant amount of Parmesan and salt to taste (add salt after the Parmesan – which is salty). If you wish, add egg to bind, though you should not need it. Roll tiny meatballs in your hands which are coated with olive-oil. Add meatballs to sauce (after it has cooked as indicated above, ie, about 15 – 20 mins) and cook 5 more minutes… not longer as meatballs will be less tender if cooked too long.
Serve with fettuccine pasta (cooked al dente) and generous amount of Parmesan on top.
Hint: whenever you make pasta, drain the cooked pasta over a bowl so that you conserve come of the water pasta was cooked in. You can use this water to “allungare” (or “lengthen”, ie, render more liquid, creamy) the pasta sauce if needed.