Fresh pasta before your eyes! Tuscan sauce: mussels and asparagus

A Tuscan sauce usually is something on the season, made with simple and fresh ingredients.

Fresh pasta represents the essence of my job and the bond with my grandmother. I know it could be silly to explain “the food” as something of great value or an important message, but food is my life and I try to communicate love through food as well. Yes, with my family, friends, but also with my students and customers on holiday in Tuscany.

Almost all of you know that we “Cuoche in Vacanza” (Italian for Cooks on Holiday) are all mad for Fresh Pasta; well, we obviously are mad for every Tuscan sauce for pasta, as well.

So, with our itinerant cooking school around Tuscany, we try to teach how to make fresh pasta in all the possible ways.

In my opinion PASTA is the most versatile dish:

First of all, enjoying your time, you can make both fresh eggs pasta or no eggs fresh pasta
Furthermore, there are a lot of fillings for fresh pasta; meat-based, fish, veggies… anyway here in Tuscany we prefer pasta filled with ricotta cheese. Then you can add to the ricotta what you prefer
well, what is fantastic with fresh pasta is the chance to “color” depending on ingredients that you use with the eggs and flour. Click the link for the many ways to color FRESH PASTA
Finally, you’ll never finish experimenting to season your pasta dish, because the sauces are endless. Here in this post, you can find the recipe of a very tasteful Tuscan sauce, made with mussels from Livorno and asparagus from San Giuliano Terme.

Well, this time we were called by a group of tourists from Norway to teach them a Tuscan menu:

Bruschetta
Ravioli Maremmani and Tagliatelle (black)
Fresh Veggies Seasonal Sauce
Tuscan Sauce with mussels and fresh asparagus (recipe down here)

What you’re seeing in the picture are all the vegetables in season here in Tuscany: cherry tomatoes, leeks, basil, asparagus, and the amazing courgette flowers.

Well, don’t be surprised, in Italy we often cook courgette flowers in many ways and I can guarantee you that they are delicious.

fried: in a blatter, stuffed with mozzarella and anchovies, or with ricotta cheese and olives
steamed stuffed with fish and egg
cut in stripes and cooked in a pan (just 5 minutes) to season all kinds of pasta with a Tuscan sauce. Want to see a sauce with courgette flowers? GNOCCHI SAUCE HERE

Our customers and students from Norway were such “hard workers”!

They set a long table outside of the beautiful “Podere Zobi” (we call “podere” every country villa here in Tuscany) with a fantastic view over the hills.

Sun was really shining and the table was open air, so it was not easy to run the cooking class. But when you’re doing something that makes you feel good, you forget any nuisance.

So we went forward making fresh pasta outside and cooking a gorgeous Tuscan sauce in the beautiful kitchen inside.

The result?

The Tuscan sauce with asparagus and mussels was delicious and everyone asked for an extra portion. It’s a very good sauce for “black” (squid-ink) pasta.

Finally, down here you can read the recipe and I’m sure that you’ll appreciate this dish both for its flavor and the easy way to make it.

You know the Cuoche in Vacanza said: #SimplebutExquisite

Mussels and Asparagus Tuscan sauce and Black Pasta

Recipe by Erika Elia (CuocheinVacanza.com)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 lb fresh asparagus
2 lb fresh mussels
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 glass dry white wine
1 cup veggie broth (optional because you can use water)
1 sprig of parsley
6 fresh basil leaves
to taste black pepper
13 oz (360gr.) of dry pasta OR 34 oz (800gr.) of fresh pasta
to taste salt
5 tbs extra virgin oil

Instructions

Wash the asparagus under fresh water and trim the ends (only the white part)
Wash the mussels and debeard them (it’s very quick, pinch the beard between your thumb and first finger. Use a side to side motion and firmly tug the beard out. The beard isn’t inedible, no problem, if there are a few little threads, left that you can’t grasp.)
Cut asparagus into 1/2 – inch pieces and leave the last part (asparagus tips) about 1 or 2-inch size
Pour oil in a pot with 1 garlic clove over high heat
after few seconds add mussels and parsley
pour in the wine, let it evaporate
Put the lid on the pot and let mussels cook until the mussels open
turn off the heat and strain the cooking liquid through a sieve
remove the mussels from the shells and set them on a plate
Pour oil with 1 garlic clove in a large pan over medium heat. Wait until you can see the first bubbles around the cloves of garlic
add the asparagus to the pan
pour in half of the cooking liquid (from mussels),
turn medium heat and lid
When almost all the liquid is absorbed, pour the remaining cooking liquid from the mussels
let asparagus cook for about 20 minutes (adding warm water when the cooking liquid is finished)
turn off the heat and pour in the mussels, stirring a bit
In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta (respect cooking time on the box of the dry pasta, or cook 3 minutes the fresh eggs pasta).
Add the mussels to the asparagus in the pan and heat on the fire (medium heat)
Drain the pasta well
pour the drained pasta into the pan and stir with a wooden fork to well season.
Serve immediately
Buon Appetito!