Asparagus, pine nuts and linguine

Just picked up April issue of Real Simple magazine and thought I’d try one of their weekday dinners, even though it is a weekend – the craziness!  The Real Simple website doesn’t have this up yet – I tried to link to it but couldn’t.  Liked it but didn’t love it but I think  it is because I took liberties with the pasta amount. It was good enough and simple enough that I am willing to try it again with the correct amount of pasta. Suggestion was made to add sausage, when I pointed out that the point was that it was veggie, it was agreed that we could add tofu or textured vegetable protein (your mouth is watering , yes?).

So here it is:

Linguine with asparagus and pine nuts

Ingredients:

• 12 oz linguine (I used more which I think was the problem – 1/3 box whole wheat and 1/2 box white pasta)
• 1/4 cup olive oil (I did add more olive oil to the pan when I saw that I would be short on sauce)
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 2 lbs asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 1 cup shaved parmesan cheese (about 3 ounces)

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain the pasta and return to pan.

Heat the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat add pine nuts and garlic and cook, stirring frequently until golden. Add asparagus and cook until just tender (2-3 minutes)  I found that it took longer – maybe 4-5 minutes

 Add the asparagus mixture to the pasta along with 1 teaspon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and toss to combine. Sprinkle with the Parmesan before serving.

http://www.realsimple.com/