Pasta Primavera With Asparagus and Peas
Updated April 9, 2025
Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times
- Total Time
- 20 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
¼ pound sugar snap peas, stems trimmed
½ pound asparagus, ends snapped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup fresh English peas
¼ cup thinly sliced spring onion, white part only (or use shallot)
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
½ teaspoon fine sea salt, more as needed
Black pepper, more as needed
12 ounces fettuccine or tagliatelle, preferably fresh (see recipe)
⅔ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, at room temperature
½ cup crème fraîche or whole milk Greek yogurt, at room temperature
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)
77 grams carbs; 49 milligrams cholesterol; 579 calories; 5 grams monosaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 10 grams saturated fat; 19 grams fat; 7 grams fiber; 605 milligrams sodium; 25 grams protein; 8 grams sugar
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Step 2
While the water is coming to a boil, slice snap peas and asparagus stems into ¼-inch-thick pieces; leave asparagus tips whole.
- Step 3
Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add snap peas, asparagus, English peas and onion. Cook until vegetables are barely tender (but not too soft or mushy), 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.
- Step 4
Drop pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente (1 to 3 minutes for fresh pasta, more for dried pasta). Drain well and transfer pasta to a large bowl. Immediately toss pasta with vegetables, Parmigiano-Reggiano, crème fraîche and herbs. Season generously with salt and pepper, if needed.
Private Notes
Comments
Primavera the best season and the recipe a great combination of ingredients (asparagus "the rite of spring). May I add, in Italia we use the garlic whole and crushed to flavor the cooking fat (oil or butter) then it is discarded. To finish the dish instead of creme fraiche drizzle the best quality extra virgin olive oil over the finished product, the flavor would be more natural and lighter.
This recipe is exceptional. I use frozen baby peas and to keep them tasty and crisp I add the frozen peas after draining the pasta then toss. The heat of the cooked pasta cooks them yet leaves them crisp.
Enjoy!
For everyone who says there isn't enough sauce - I added about 1/2 cup chicken broth at the end of cooking the veggies, and also mixed about 1/4 cup water from the pasta in when I tossed everything together. This resulted in a less dairy-focused but still flavorful mix that allowed the lovely taste of the spring vegetables to shine through.
Excellent! Far exceeded expectations… I thought it was very light and ‘springy’ (despite the reviews and having cream+parm on the ingredient list)… I used heavy cream + some fresh lemon juice as a substitute for the crème fraîche (worked perfectly)… I heavily salted the pasta water, which definitely added a lot of flavor... I was using veggies from my CSA box, so I only had spring onions and snap peas, but I just increased the snap pea amount (and added broccolini from previous night). I only had parsley (no tarragon), so I just omitted tarragon and didn’t substitute or increase the amount of parsley. Very simple and delicious!
Not nearly as flavorful as I hoped :(
This is very good. But one caution. I did not have snap peas so used frozen peas, as the recipe suggests. While they tasted fine, they are much harder to handle - to pick up with the pasta and the asparagus, so next time I will make sure to use the snap peas.