Coloured Homemade Tagliatelle With Asparagus and Fresh Herbs

With the abundance of spring harvest I feel like light and fresh meals, rich aromas of the new season that is so late this year. Asparagus is now almost out of season but you can still find good bunches on the market stalls so I bought some and decided to use them to prepare a delicate pasta, brightly coloured tagliatelle, to compensate for the lack of sunshine. This British weather challenges me to look for colour and intense flavours in dishes that I prepare. Thus this pasta dish was born. A few minutes on the balcony to take advantage of the most fragrant herbs, a small bunch of asparagus and egg tagliatelle that I made a few days ago. The dish pretty much was created while cooking it!

Here are the ingredients for two servings:

• 160 g of colourful homemade egg tagliatelle
•10-12 asparagus
•1 tablespoon butter
•1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
•1/2 golden onion
•1 bunch of fresh herbs - I used dill, parsley and tarragon
•few spoonfuls fresh cream
•salt
•black pepper
•pink pepper

Put some water in a large pot and heat. Heat the oil and butter in a large skillet. Thinly slice the onion and cut the asparagus stalks diagonally in order to obtain thin slices. Put the onion and asparagus stalks in the pan and cook for about 8-10 minutes or until the onion is golden and the asparagus are start to soften. Add the asparagus heads, a pinch of salt, freshly ground black pepper and cook for a few minutes. Add coarse salt to the pasta water when it starts boiling and cook your tagliatelle in it. Add the cream to the asparagus and onion mix and let reduce over medium-high heat until you get a thick sauce.

Chop the herbs. Drain the tagliatelle when al dente reserving some of the cooking water. Pour the tagliatelle in the pan whit the sauce, add the herbs and sauté for a few minutes, adding the reserved water if your pasta becomes too dry. Put some pasta in a plate, sprinkle with some pink peppercorns crashed between your fingers and serve.