Eggs with Asparagus and Fiddleheads

I feel silly even calling this a recipe or writing about it, but it was so delicious I figured I might as well share. Simon was in California this week so I was eating simpler meals (read: combining contents of fridge into meal-like concoctions). I had some leftover asparagus and fiddleheads so I thought I would put them together. Then I realised I had eggs so I topped the sauteed vegetables with a fried egg. That's it. But seriously, is there anything that egg yoke doesn't improve? Just a tip: steam your fiddleheads first (about 15 minutes); they have a toxin in them that needs to be cooked out before eating. Check out Health Canada for more information.

Fettucine with Peas, Asparagus, and Pancetta

Simon is blessed, as in full-on, gift-from-God blessed. There isn't enough food in the world to slow his metabolism down. So, you can imagine his confusion when I make such ridiculous statements as "I only eat pasta once a week".

I love pasta. I love meat sauces, and cream sauces, and carbonaras, and baked pasta. I love it all - but I don't have the metabolism of a 12 year-old. So when the new Bon Appetit came out with 3000 different pasta recipes I was desperate to try, I had to choose carefully.

In the end, I went with the fettucine from the magazine's cover. Partly because it looked easy (and I didn't start cooking until 6:00) and partly because it has asparagus and there was some lovely looking Ontario asparagus at the green grocers. Also, it has pancetta. I love pancetta. I love the way it's like bacon but seems somehow more elegant. And I love the way the pink and white ribbing make it look like candy. I love it so much I ate a third of it while cooking the rest of the ingredients.

What I love about this recipe, is how absolutely green it is. It's like the pasta is an afterthought. And honestly, if for some reason or other you weren't eating pasta, you could probably eat it without as some sort of Asparagus, Peas, and Pancetta warm salad (yum!?!). What I don't like about this recipe is that it was a ridiculous amount of work for what looked like a simple pasta dish. I'd definitely make it again, but I don't know that I'd follow the recipe exactly. It's the perfect kind of dish to improvise with whatever looks good at the market.