Byron Food: Spring Vegetables and Organic Lemon Butter Pasta

By Elizabeth Hewson, Saturday Night Pasta

Serves 2

This creamy, lemony butter pasta sauce is a beautiful base to celebrate the bounty of spring. You can use any spring vegetables you like. Play around with what you love or what you can find at the markets. I love broad beans, but do keep in mind they need to be double podded. Blanch the vegetables quickly before cooking the pasta to ensure they stay bright and green.

Ingredients:

• 160g-200g long dried pasta 

• Handful of broad beans, podded

• ½ cup spring peas

• 6-8 spears asparagus

• 1 tablespoon olive oil

• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced

• 125ml (½ cup) dry white wine
  3 zucchini flowers with small zucchinis attached, or 1 small zucchini

• 70 g The Organic Milk Co salted butter, cut into 5 or so cubes

• Zest of 1 lemon plus juice

• handful of basil leaves, to serve

• Parmigiano Reggiano or parmesan to serve, grated

Method:

Bring a large saucepan of water to a lively boil and season so it is as salty as the sea. Add the broad beans, asparagus and peas. Blanch for 1 minute, then scoop out and plunge into ice water to stop the cooking process. Leave for a few minutes, then drain and dry on paper towel. If using broad beans, pod these again so you are left with the bright green beans.

Keep your water on a rapid boil. Cook pasta until al dente.

For the zucchini, thinly slice the little zucchinis and gently tear the flowers. If using a small zucchini, you can use a mandolin to get wafer thin slices. Set aside. These do not need to be cooked ahead.

For the sauce, place a frypan with high sides over medium heat. Add olive oil and garlic and cook for 1 minute, then reduce the heat. Add the wine and cook for about 3 minutes or until reduced by half. Add the butter cubes, one at a time, whisking well and allowing each to melt before adding the next. Keep whisking as you add the cubes. Season with salt, pepper and lemon zest. You should have a glossy, bright yellow sauce that has thickened slightly.

Using tongs, transfer the cooked pasta straight into the lemon butter sauce along with a splash of pasta water to bring it together. Squeeze in the lemon juice and toss the pasta around the sauce for 20 to 30 seconds. Add a splash more pasta water if needed to loosen it. Turn off the heat. Toss in the blanched spring vegetables, zucchini slices and a small handful of grated cheese. Toss again, then finish with most of the zucchini flowers and basil leaves, reserving some to garnish. Toss and serve into bowls.

Serve with extra cheese, the remaining flowers and basil and a drizzle of olive oil just to say I love you.

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about ELIZABETH HEWSON

Hi there. I’m Lizzie.

I am a recipe writer, cookbook author and Head of Creative at leading hospitality group, Fink.

For me, food and cooking is a way to connect with the world – it’s what makes life worth living and brings people together from all walks of life.

I love simple, comforting food that makes the most of humble ingredients - spaghetti tossed with olive oil, garlic and chilli; ripe summer tomatoes and basil heaped on toasted country bread. It’s the way I like to cook and eat - work with the best ingredients available and let them speak for themselves. Often the simplest things are the most delicious.

My hunger for sharing food and stories started back in 2013 when I wrote a book entitled ‘Moving out…Eating in’. Shortly after, I packed my bags for Bra, a small town in Piedmont in Northern Italy. There I studied my Masters in Food Culture & Communication at the University of Gastronomic Science (also known as the birthplace of the Slow Food movement). This is where my love affair with all things pasta began.

I have long struggled with anxiety, and it was during a particularly unmanageable time, I found solace in the humble act of making pasta every Saturday night. I soon established it as my self-care ritual, and to this day continue to lean into during times of uncertainty.

I live in Sydney with my husband, Tom, my son, Louis, daughter Remi and big beautiful, Bernese Mountain Dog, Forest.

In addition to my books, you can find my recipes in The Weekend Australian Magazine, where I join chef and good friend Lennox Hastie on the culinary team.