Saute' Pasta with Vegetables

Todd Gray: Hi I am Tom Gray with Equinox Restaurant and today we are preparing orecchiette pasta with spring vegetables. I have already prepared our asparagus and now I am going to cut our shallots and our swiss chard. Being very careful that we put our shallot down, its on the flat. We dont want our shallot just rolling around. We want to make sure that its flat, cutting with the grain in this shallot from length to length here, up and down, being careful to put our fingers behind the knife, using it as a guide, rolling our shallot, cutting nice even slices. I can go a little faster, rolling it down again so that its flat. Place tur shallots in a ramekin and then bring in our sSwisschard.

, whch Thise rainbow sSwisschard.

; Iitha thea colrful stems hence the name rainbow sSwisschard. On oura cuting board we will fold down the leaves, jusas toouch and then we will cut into about half inch strips. and c our sSwisschard into our ramekin. Now that all of theoegetables are prepped, we can begin our pasta dish, set to the range. We will start by turning our pan to a medium temperature. I am going to be starting with olive oil, a little butter. Let the butter melt in the olive oil. We will roll this on our saut pan. Its important that we use a good saut pan, one of the best investments you can have in the kitchen. A heavy duty pan that distributes the heat evenly is most important. I am actually using an all-clad pan today .

We are going to start by adding our shallots, our garlic. I am using a minced garlic that I have previously minced but you can certainly buy a minced garlic in your local super market.

Lets saut these at about a minute. I prefer cooking on gas to electric as a little stronger BTU whics us a little better and stronger heat. I am cooking today on an Electrolux ICONicon any good solid cooking range would do. I am going now to add my sSwis chard and my asparagus and diced carrots. These carrots were small diced, put into boiling salted water and shocked_ jut like I dido itw asparagus and the _pasa,. Ii hey go. Give these vessels a good toss, really nice colors with our rainbow chard and our carrots and those vibrant green asparagus tips. We will aAdd our orecciette pasta to the pan.

; Ggive it a oo crank withof some firstesh cr crack pepper, a peppermill, mustard much nd than usine bought three black g. Nnice mucheause e much chewercidar (esh fresh p flavor wth a, little sprikalt and finally oura heavy cream About A half a cup avy cream.

, We will brig this together, incorporatinge our pasta wth the our vegets, being sure that it is mixed well and this cream sauce as it reduces ,redu going to give us body ,body, i going give us the thickening power for a sauce. We just need to let that simmer for about another minute. Justs check our heat. Thene we t that down to a medium low temperature. Now that our sauce hasis bn allowed to simmer for about a minute, thatnice consistency, given us itsst a nape_ cosistency. Its, nie and typet down here on our vegetables and our pasta. Lets taste, itto make sure we have enough salt and, peper in anddish, preect. So M sure we get all theseis aund.

Now that cooking is complete, lets finish out and plate our dish. Now the time we all have been waiting for. We will plate up our pasta, spin some of the vegetables and orecchiette down the dish. Again my recipe is using asparagus and swiss chard, you could certainly serve haricot vert or some other vegetables, maybe spinach if you would like than cooking by following recipes. Recipes are just a road map. Spoon this down, with a few more vegetables on, a nice portion there. Put some of our asparagus tips on the top and finally finishing with our parmesan reggiano, a great cheese from Italy. That was great, I am plating it up on a black disc, gives it a nice contrast. A great dish, easy to prepare. Orecchiette with asparagus and swiss chard, highlighting some wonderful seasonal vegetables to show you that great cooking does not need to be complicated. Cook well and enjoy.