Recipe Revisit: Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce

It’s time to revisit an old recipe from The Messy Apron Archives: Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce and Bacon. This one goes way back to the first year these pages were online; from the second month, in fact. It’s embarrassing to sneak a peek at some of those old posts (especially the sad photographs!), but this is really a great recipe. I should be making it at least once a year during local asparagus season, but, and this is even sadder than those old photos, I don’t think I’ve made it since I put up that post all those years ago.

This is quite a simple dish, as most of my weeknight suppers tend to be these days. Onions and asparagus get sautéed in bacon drippings and then a swim in a sauce of balsamic vinegar and sugar. This sauce gets reduced even as it soaks into the asparagus, becoming richer and more complex, not to mention sweeter. A good dose of fresh tarragon adds some delicious anise notes, and it all gets tossed with pasta, pecans, and crisp bacon.

The inspiration recipe that I tinkered with to produce the original post was a side dish without the noodles and less sauce. I just increased the sauce volume and plumped it up to a main dish with the pasta. I had originally made it with short pasta, but, I tried it with linguine in this recipe revisit with excellent results, which leads me to conclude that pasta of any shape would be just great, as would whole grain noodles.

I also added Pernod to the dish all those years ago, but in this retest, I went without it and found that it’s not necessary. It probably just overpowers the more subtle flavor of the tarragon. It probably also helped to make the sauce especially sweet, since I wrote a lot in that old post about how sweet the dish was, but I did not find it especially sweet without the Pernod.

Overall, I prefer the ever-so-slightly altered version of this recipe that I have below. It’s more inclusive when it comes to pasta shape, and is therefore easier to pull off with what’s in the pantry. The Pernod can go, but if you can’t get your hands on some good fresh tarragon (I grow it in a pot on my back porch), perhaps a teaspoon or two of some kind of anise-flavored liqueur can help you get that particularly fitting flavor kick.

The only additional alteration I might try is to leave out the bacon and make this dish vegetarian (actually, it would even be vegan without the bacon if you used vegan pasta). The onions and asparagus could be sautéed in olive oil instead of the bacon fat, which would change the flavor, but might still be pretty darn good. Bacon does give everything a certain something special, but if you’re not into pork, you should still be able to have lots of delicious happiness with asparagus and tarragon and balsamic vinegar all by their flavorful selves.

Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce and Bacon
If you don’t have tarragon available, you could replace it with thyme or basil, or with 1-2 teaspoons of an anise-flavored liqueur, such as Pernod.

3 strips thick-cut bacon
8 ounces any pasta, short or long cut
½ cup thinly sliced onion
1 pound asparagus, tough ends removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
¼ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt (or more, to taste)

A few grinds of black pepper (to taste)
½ cup toasted chopped pecans

1. Cook the bacon in a large saute pan until crisp. Remove the bacon and drain on a paper towel-lined plate. Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the bacon drippings from the pan. Chop the bacon into small pieces when cool.

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until it is done as you like it. Drain the pasta. Reserve about ½ cup of the pasta cooking water to have on hand in case you need more moisture at the end of cooking the dish.

3. Return the reserved bacon drippings to medium heat (in the same pan). Add the onion and ¼ teaspoon salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes, or until the onion starts to brown. Add the asparagus and sauté 2 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Cook several minutes until the vinegar has reduced by about half and has become slightly thicker and syrupy.

5. Add the tarragon and pepper. Cook about 1 minute. Add the pasta and toss well. If the pasta appears too dry, add some of the reserved pasta-cooking water. Stir in the chopped bacon and pecans.

Makes about 4 servings

Other recipes like this one: Pasta with Asparagus, Snap Peas, and Lemon; Pasta with Caramelized Onions and Arugula; Spaetzle with Cabbage, Bacon, and Onions

Waiting (Im)patiently

I am not a patient person (although I acknowledge this problem and am working on it, thank you.) My first CSA* delivery will not be until June 2, but the “seasonal” recipes using spring vegetables and baby salad greens have been featured in cooking magazines for at least two months. We will most likely be getting asparagus (nice, healthy, sweet and crunchy organic asparagus) in our box from the CSA, but some pretty decent asparagus has been coming to town, just to taunt me as I try to eat more and more from local sources. I finally gave in. Asparagus season is short after all.

With the last bundle of pretty nice asparagus spears that I bought, I made Spring Vegetable Tabbouleh but had plenty left to make something else, so I fell back on an old favorite, a sautéed asparagus with a balsamic-tarragon vinaigrette from Cooking Light magazine. My patio herb garden is going strong (I wanted to post some photos of that, but it’s been raining every day since I planted) and I had plenty of tarragon. I didn’t want a side dish, however, so I increased the volume of the sauce and made it a pasta dish.

The sauce for this dish, which is mostly reduced balsamic vinegar and some sugar, is a bit sweet, but somehow the asparagus seems to soak up some vinegar before the vinegar reduces in volume and increases in sweetness, maintaining a bit of a tart quality that is a nice contrast. If you find the sauce too sweet (or think you will upon reviewing the recipe), just reduce the amount of sugar.

The Pernod (or other anise liqueur) is optional in this dish. It simply bumps up the anise flavor contributed by the fresh tarragon. It would not be necessary to buy a bottle just for the 1 tablespoon I included in this recipe. If you happen to have some around, however, I think it adds some character to the sauce. If you don’t groove on bacon (I’m having a hard time refraining from commenting, since I strongly respect a vegetarian lifestyle…I also, however, have strong feelings for bacon) you can leave that out of the dish as well and it will be entirely vegetarian. Just replace the bacon drippings with olive oil.

I’m a bit squeamish about making recommendations, especially for something that costs more than a pack of gum, but I had a very nice wine with this that I think really made the meal. I’m not a big drinker of alcohol, but I’ll have a bit of wine if I think it will compliment a dish at dinner. With this one, I tried Gazela Vinho Verde (2008), and thought it was magnificent. Vinho Verdes are young Portugese white wines that are quite inexpensive. The Gazela was tart rather than dry and a little fizzy, which really cut through and complimented the sweet sauce. I hope you can find it and give it a try.

Asparagus and Pasta with Balsamic-Tarragon Sauce and Bacon
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how much asparagus I had left to use in this recipe. The moral of the story is, use what you have and it will still be good (simply because it will still be asparagus!)

3 strips thick-cut bacon
8 ounces bow-tie or other short pasta
½ cup thinly sliced onion
1 pound asparagus, tough ends removed and cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon Pernod (or other anise-flavored liqueur), optional
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
salt and pepper to taste
½ cup toasted chopped pecans

1. Cook the bacon in a frying pan until crisp. Remove and drain the bacon, reserving 2 tablespoons of the drippings (“drippings” is such a nice word for salty liquid pork fat).

2. Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until it is done as you like it. (I like “al dente.”) Drain the pasta, reserving ½ cup of the pasta cooking water.

3. Heat the reserved bacon drippings in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes, or until the onion starts to brown. Add the asparagus and sauté 2 mintues, stirring occasionally.

4. Add the balsamic vinegar and sugar, stirring well to dissolve the sugar. Cook several minutes until the vinegar has reduced by about half and has become slightly thicker and syrupy.

5. Add the Pernod and tarragon, and salt and pepper to taste (I used about ¼ tsp of each). Add the pasta and some of the reserved cooking water. Toss well. Crumble the bacon into the pan and stir it in. Garnish each serving with pecans.

Makes about 4 servings

* Community Supported Agriculture. The one to which I subscribe is here.