Spring Greens Pasta with Burrata
I love burrata. No, that's not entirely accurate - I luuuuuuurve burrata. While usually I end up eating burrata straight out of the brine with whatever I have on hand (tomatoes, crackers, bread, a spoon, my face...), one day I decided to be a grown-up and actually find a dinner recipe for this fabulous cheese. And I'm so glad I did - I found this awesome pasta dish on Feasting at Home, and it has become a springtime staple in our household. The version below is one that I have doctored a bit, but you can find the original here.
Ingredients
-16oz pasta (I usually use orecchiette, farfalle, or fusilli - whatever the grocery story happens to have in stock that week)
-4 quarts water
-2 cups fresh or frozen peas
-2 cups fresh sugar snap peas
-1 bunch asparagus, chopped into 1-2 inch pieces, tips separated from stems
-1 medium onion, diced
-10oz mushrooms, sliced (I usually use button mushrooms, but you do you)
-2 cups greens that will wilt well (say that 5 times fast), like arugula, spinach, chard, or dandelion greens
-1 TB olive oil
-2 eggs
-1/2 cup parmigiano reggiano, grated (or more... with me it's always more)
-2 balls of burrata
-salt
-pepper
Method
-Pour water into a large pot and season with a generous amount of salt; Bring to a boil
-Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook onion in olive oil until softened, then add asparagus stems, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until tender.
-Add wilting greens to mushroom skillet and saute, tossing often, until they've just wilted. Once wilted, take skillet off of heat and set aside.
-Whisk 2 eggs in a medium bowl and set aside.
-When water has come to a boil, add pasta, stirring a few times to make sure it doesn't stick together at the bottom. Cook pasta as per instructions, minus one minute.
-When the timer goes off, do two things: 1) Add the peas, sugar snap peas, and asparagus tips and cook with the pasta for the remaining 1 minute; 2) Take a ladle and scoop out 1 ladle-full of pasta water. Add the pasta water slowly to the eggs while whisking with a fork - this will temper the eggs and create a carbonara-esque sauce. MAKE SURE TO KEEP STIRRING WHILE POURING SLOWLY. Seriously. This is important if you don't like scrambled eggs in your pasta.
-After the final minute of pasta-cooking is done, drain the pasta and added veggies, and pour into a large bowl. Toss with the sauteed veggies from the large skillet, the parmigiano reggiano, and a little more salt and pepper.
-Pour the egg mixture over the pasta, tossing thoroughly (but gently!) so everything gets coated.
-Serve with burrata. I'll leave the portioning up to your discretion. Sometimes I'll put a half-burrata on every plate. Sometimes I'll put a whole one. It depends on how much I'm craving burrata at the time.