My kids and I like fresh asparagus, and we eat a ton of pasta to fuel our sports (cycling and running for me, soccer and track for my daughter, lacrosse and wrestling for my son.)

So when I discovered an asparagus pasta recipe in Mark Bittman’s cookbook: The Minimalist Cooks Dinner, I was thrilled. His cookbook is based on a popular New York Times column which gives recipes for fast weeknight meals. He also gives you shortcuts if you’re missing ingredients, and must-do tips to make sure your dishes come out good. Plus, he pairs wine with every meal. What’s not to like?

Back to asparagus. This asparagus pasta recipe is cooked risotto style, meaning the pasta is sautéed rather than boiled. It’s super easy to make. Here’s my take on it.

Asparagus Pasta Recipe, Risotto Style

Put 6 to 8 cups of chicken or beef stock into a saucepan and heat. You’ll use it later in the recipe.

Chop a medium white onion and sauté it in a big frying pan with 3 Tablespoons butter for a few minutes.

Add 1 pound of penne or other cut pasta. I use the smallest tube pasta I can find.

Sautee the pasta in the butter and onion for 5 minutes.

Add 1/2 cup of the warm broth to the pasta. Let it sauté another 5 minutes. While it’s sautéing, the pasta will soak up the broth. Ladle more broth into the pan every now and then so it doesn’t dry out. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile – rinse the asparagus, snap off the flat ends, and cut the asparagus stalks into 1 inch pieces.

Separate the asparagus tips from the stalks – the tips are more tender and will cook quicker.

At this point, the pasta has been sautéing 10 minutes. Add the asparagus stalks, and more broth. Let this cook 5 minutes. Then add the asparagus tips and more broth, and cook until the tips are crisp tender. By my clock, this is about 5 minutes more.

The pasta will have cooked about 20 minutes total. Serve the asparagus pasta with grated parmesan cheese. Sourdough bread is a great way to soak up the broth/sauce.

Mark Bittman suggests pairing this asparagus pasta with a sturdy red wine like Bordeaux, Chianti, or Cotes du Rhone. I usually just shake up a classic gin martini or a manhattan cocktail – while I’m cooking, of course.

He also says if you’re using canned stock, heat it with a garlic clove or some carrot. Gotta love the tips he gives in his recipe book!

This asparagus pasta recipe is simple, healthy, and tastey. Enjoy!

If you liked this asparagus pasta risotto style recipe, you might also enjoy:

• Best Way to Marinade and Grill Asparagus
• How do you cook raw beets?
  
• How to Cook Swiss Chard and Beet Greens
• Pasta With Peas Recipe
• Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
• Lentil Pasta Recipe

© 2008-2010 David Mott, DadsHouseBlog.com. All rights reserved.

(To get straight to the recipe, scroll down…)

Rather than boast, we did some research and testing. Turns out our original version of the worlds best hamburger recipe wasn’t far off the mark, but we did improve upon it.

We started the process with a simple hamburger recipe found in our favorite cookbook, The Best Recipe by Cook’s Illustrated. This cookbook not only tells you the best way to cook something, but also all the variations they tried. They suggest the best way to cook a hamburger is grilling on high heat, and we couldn’t agree more. Here’s their simple recipe:

Basic Hamburger Recipe

1 ¼ lb. Ground chuck (20% fat)
¾ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground black pepper
Form into patties
Grill 4 minutes each side on high heat (we found 4 min. first side, and 3 min. second side more to our liking)

This recipe makes a good burger, but it lacks pizzazz. It didn’t make our mouths zing. Despite the cookbook title, it just didn’t cut it as the worlds best hamburger recipe. (It’s still a great cookbook.)

A Better Burger…

My younger brother suggested soy sauce makes the best burgers. My kids and I, on the other hand, swear by our own secret ingredient: Montreal seasoning, a mix of salt, black pepper, red pepper, garlic, and paprika (available in the supermarket spice rack.) Our Montreal seasoned burgers have been called worlds best more than once by neighbors and friends. We figured we’d put our recipe up against my brother’s to see whose is best.

We tested different combinations and amounts of soy sauce, Montreal seasoning, and soy sauce combined with Montreal season. We cooked at least a dozen different variations. The result:

• soy sauce by itself made for a juicy burger, but was too salty
• Montreal seasoning by itself had a good zing, but was too dry (so much for our original recipe! Ah, but this meant we could improve)
• soy sauce combined with Montreal seasoning – perfect!

Here’s Dad’s House kid-tested version of:

The Worlds Best Hamburger Recipe

1 ¼ lb. Ground chuck (20% fat)
3 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Montreal seasoning
Mix hamburger and seasonings (don’t over-handle the meat)
Form into patties – we made 3 good-sized burgers (perfect for dad and two teens)
Grill on high heat, 4 minutes first side, 3 minutes second side

That’s it – easy, simple. Time to eat!

If you liked this post, you might also enjoy these recipes:

• How to Marinade and Grill Asparagus
  
• How to Grill Salmon the Best Way
  
• Grilling With Grandpa
• Grilling at the Graduation Picnic
• Chicken and Dumplings Recipe
  
• Manhattan Cocktail Recipe
  
• Old Fashioned Cocktail Recipe
  

© 2008-2010 David Mott, DadsHouseBlog.com. All rights reserved.