I get a lot of emails from people who are into pasta. I totally understand this because I find myself in a pasta situation from time to time. Usually, it’s red sauce. During spring, I like to switch to lighter vegetable pasta recipes like this Asparagus Carbonara recipe!
When you can find great vegetables (like asparagus) at the store and markets, I like to temporarily banish tomatoes from my pasta dishes. While this leaves you with a wide variety of creamy sauces, if you want to stay on the light side, I recommend mastering (or at least trying) the carbonara method!
A good carbonara only needs a few ingredients and I always like to stick to one vegetable that is in season. For this version I went with asparagus and seasoned with lots of garlic and lemon. It may look boring, but it’s actually packed with flavor.
Why is asparagus carbonara so good?
While there’s no meat in this carbonara, the asparagus helps it feel substantial enough without the usual addition of meat (usually bacon or gonzalez for carbonara).
While the carbonara looks like a cream sauce, it’s actually just beaten eggs into the pasta so it’s lighter than you might think and the asparagus folds perfectly into the sauce.
When choosing asparagus for this recipe, I prefer the thinner asparagus rather than the thick asparagus that I save for roasting.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
There is no need to overcomplicate such a dish. Find good fresh asparagus, bright lemons and garlic. That’s really all you need. On the asparagus, try to find the thinner spears. The thicker ones need to be roasted or blanched, but the thin ones can be thrown in the pan and they cook quickly.
Other ingredients you’ll need include Parmesan cheese, eggs, some pasta (I like fettuccine), and seasonings like black pepper and salt.
Cooking the asparagus for carbonara
Trim the bottoms 1-2 inches from the spears (the hard part) and then chop them into 2-inch pieces. For the garlic, just slice it.
Add a drizzle of oil to a large pan over medium heat. Then throw in the asparagus and cook the spears until they turn bright green and begin to soften. Then add the pieces of garlic and cook for another minute. You don’t want to add the garlic too soon or it will just burn.
Towards the end, cover the vegetables with a little white wine to deglaze the pan and season with salt and pepper.
Remove the spears and garlic from the pan but do not worry about cleaning the pan. You can use it again to finish the dish.
Tricks for making silky smooth carbonara
The sauce for classic carbonara pasta is egg-based! It can be tricky to work with. If you do it right, the eggs will be a light sauce on the noodles that folds everything together. If you do it wrong, you’ll have pasta and scrambled eggs. To be honest, I’ve messed up carbonara many times over the years and it’s still an edible dish. Just not quite as pretty as a perfect, silky smooth carbonara.
One trick I’ve used successfully over the years is to whip the eggs with some Parmesan cheese (about a cup, but who’s measuring?). Then whisk in about 1/2 cup of hot pasta water. The pasta water will strengthen the eggs a little (like making custard) and also brighten them so they don’t set so much when they hit the pasta.
And most importantly, mix the eggs into the pasta off the heat. If you leave the pasta pan on the heat when you add the eggs, they will most likely cook.
How to finish the carbonara
Speaking of pasta, I like to use fettuccine for this carbonara, but spaghetti would be fine too.
When the pasta is cooked, be sure to reserve about 2 cups of pasta water. The pasta water is very important to bring the finished pasta to the right texture.
When your pasta is drained, add it to the pan along with 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add in the asparagus and garlic and pour in the egg mixture when the heat is completely off. Don’t worry, there is still plenty of residual heat in the pasta.
Toss it together like crazy to try to keep the eggs evenly coated as they heat.
If you do it right, you’ll have a silky smooth sauce, but if you end up with a few bits of hard-boiled egg in the sauce. Don’t worry about it. Your pasta is not ruined. It happens to the best of us. Just keep folding the eggs into the pasta with the vegetables and try to get it as smooth as possible.
At the end, cover the pasta with a little lemon juice and season it with salt and pepper.
If the pasta is really thick, add more pasta water to keep the sauce smooth. If it’s thin and watery, keep tossing it in the pan until it thickens a bit.
It might sound a bit complicated, but it will turn out great even if you mess up the eggs a bit.
The most important thing is to serve the pasta as quickly as possible (cold eggs are not good). Decorate each bowl with lots of grated parm and lemon zest!
What is served with asparagus carbonara?
There are many options for what to serve with this carbonara, but you should also feel okay serving it on its own. This is a great solo meal.
If you are looking for a salad to serve with the pasta, try this roasted carrot salad!
A great side is garlic bread of course. I love this garlic baguette bread.
And this time of year, I love to serve such pasta with a bright salad like this Greek salad.
What variations/substitutions could work?
There are several variations on carbonara. Here are some ideas!
- To make the carbonara more traditional, add bacon or gonzalez to the pan. Cook it until crisp and then use that fat to saute the asparagus.
- To make the sauce thicker, add two more egg yolks to the sauce and whisk it together.
- Mix in some other cheeses like pecorino romano, which is common for carbonara.
- Change the vegetable according to the season. Fresh peas work really well in this too.
Spring asparagus carbonara
Fresh asparagus carbonara recipe packed with sauteed asparagus, lemon and parmesan and folded into creamy fettuccine carbonara.
- 1 A bunch of thin asparagus chopped
- 3 cloves garlic cut
- 2 spoons Olive oil
- ¼ Goblet White wine
- 3 Big balls
- 1 Goblet Parmesan cheese
- 10 ounces Fettuccine pasta
- 1 lemon Grate and juice
- salt and pepper
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Slice garlic and chop the bottom ends of the asparagus spears (usually 1-2 inches). Then chop spears into about 2 inch pieces.
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Heat a large pan over medium heat. Once hot, add a drizzle of oil along with the thin asparagus spears. Cook until they are bright green and slightly softened, 4-5 minutes. Add pieces of garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another minute. Add white wine to the deglaze pan and after it is cooked, remove the asparagus from the pan.
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In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs with Parmesan cheese.
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Cook pasta according to the instructions until al dente. Reserve two cups of pasta water. Whisk 1/2 cup hot pasta water into the egg/cheese mixture to lighten it a bit.
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Drain the pasta and add pasta to the pan with 1/4 cup of pasta water on low heat. Fold in the asparagus mixture.
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Pour the egg mixture over the pasta and asparagus and stir quickly to mix in the eggs from the heat. The goal is to make it a smooth sauce on the pasta. If the pasta becomes too thick, add 1/4 cup more pasta water. If you do this over the heat, the sauce will overcook.
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After a few minutes the egg mixture should barely hold the pasta as a sauce. Add fresh lemon juice to the pasta and season with salt and pepper.
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Serve carbonara immediately with lemon zest and extra grated parm on top.
dose: 1plateCalories: 494KKLCarbohydrates: 55Gprotein: 24GFat: 20GSaturated fat: 7GPolyunsaturated fat: 2GUnsaturated fat: 9Gtrans fat: 0.1GCholesterol: 199mgsodium: 465mgpotassium: 302mgfiber: 3GSugar: 2Gvitamin: 454IUVitamin C: 15mgcalcium: 352mgiron: 3mg
did you do that?
Take a picture and tag @macheesmo So I can see your work.
Here are some more great recipes to try!
