TASTE
Go gourmet with fregola pasta and asparagus
| • | The tasteful truth about tomatoes |
By Bonnie S. Benwick
Washington Post
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Feeling like a gourmet weeknight, but one that doesn't involve a lot of fuss? The answer is a quicker-than-usual risotto-like dish made with a tiny Sardinian pasta called fregola — available at R. Field Wine Co. at Foodland — or with the much easier to find couscous. You could even do this with orzo (rice-sized pasta) that had been steamed a little bit, just tooth-hard. With asparagus and cheese, what could go wrong?
Think of this dish as an unfussy, roly-poly risotto, achieved with less stirring and packed with some of the young, tender asparagus that has just cropped up in produce departments. Fregola, a small, round toasted pasta, hails from Sardinia, but the cheese it's paired with here is from mainland Italy.
Fregola can be ordered through several online purveyors, as well.
Serve with a frisee or endive salad and a glass of the same, good dry white wine you cooked with. Adapted from "Sweet Myrtle and Bitter Honey: The Mediterranean Flavors of Sardinia," by Efisio Harris (Rizzoli, 2007).
FREGOLA WITH ASPARAGUS AND GORGONZOLA
Bring the chicken broth almost to a boil over medium-high heat in a large saucepan.
Meanwhile, chop the shallot. Cut off the tough ends of the asparagus and cut the stalks crosswise into 2-inch pieces.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a separate large saucepan over medium heat until the oil shimmers. Add the chopped shallot and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until golden (watch carefully to avoid burning). Add the asparagus and cook for 30 seconds, stirring to coat evenly.
Add the fregola to the asparagus and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to toast the pasta. Add the wine and cook for 2 minutes or until it is absorbed, then add all of the hot broth. Cover partially and cook, stirring often, for about 15 minutes or until the mixture is creamy and the fregola has gotten fatter.
Remove from the heat and add the gorgonzola, stirring to combine. Then add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let the pasta rest for 2 minutes before serving.
