I get a lot of emails from people who are in pasta ruts. I totally get this because I find myself in a pasta rut from time to time. Generally, it’s a red sauce rut. During spring time, I like to switch to light vegetable pasta recipes like this asparagus carbonara recipe!
When you can find really great veggies (like asparagus) at the store and in markets, I like to temporarily banish tomatoes from my pasta dishes. While that leaves you with a wide range of cream sauces, if you want to stay on the light side, I recommend mastering (or at least attempting) the carbonara method!
A good carbonara only needs a few ingredients and I always like to go heavy on one vegetable that’s in season. For this version, I went with asparagus and seasoned it with lots of garlic and lemon. It might look boring, but it’s actually packed with flavor.
Why Asparagus Carbonara is so good
While there is no meat in this carbonara, it the asparagus helps it to feel substantial enough without the normal addition of meat (typically bacon or guanciale for carbonara).
While carbonara looks like a cream sauce, it’s actually just eggs whipped into the pasta so it’s lighter than you might think and the asparagus folds in perfectly to the sauce.
When you are selecting asparagus for this recipe, I prefer the thinner asparagus rather than the thick asparagus which I reserve for grilling.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
There’s no need to over-complicate a dish like this. Find good, fresh asparagus, bright lemons, and garlic. That’s really all you need. On the asparagus, try to find the thinner spears. The thicker ones need to be roasted or blanched but the thin ones can be tossed in a pan and they cook quickly.
Other ingredients you’ll need include Parmesan cheese, eggs, some sort of pasta (I like fettuccine) and seasoning like black pepper and salt.
Cooking the asparagus for the carbonara
Chop the bottom 1-2 inches off the spears (the tough part) and then chop them into 2-inch pieces. For the garlic, just slice it into slivers.
Add a drizzle of oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Then toss in the asparagus and cook the spears until they turn bright green and are starting to get tender. Then add the garlic slivers and cook for another minute or so. You don’t want to add the garlic too soon or it will just burn.
Near the end, hit the veggies with some white wine to deglaze the pan and season with salt and pepper.
Scoop the spears and garlic out of the pan but don’t worry about cleaning the skillet. You can use it again to finish the dish.
Tricks for making a silky smooth carbonara
The sauce for a classic carbonara pasta is egg based! This can be tricky to work with. If you do it right, the eggs will form a light sauce on the noodles that folds everything together. If you do it wrong, you’ll have pasta and scrambled eggs. To be honest, I’ve messed up carbonara many times over the years and it’s still an edible dish. Just not quite as pretty as a perfect, silky smooth carbonara.
One trick I’ve used with success over the years is to whisk the eggs with some Parmesan cheese (about a cup, but who’s measuring?). Then whisk in about 1/2 cup of hot pasta water. The pasta water will temper the eggs a bit (like making a custard) and also lighten them so they won’t clump so much when they hit the pasta.
Most importantly, stir the eggs into the pasta OFF the heat. If you leave the pasta skillet over the heat when you add the eggs, they will most likely cook.
How to finish the carbonara
Speaking of pasta, I like to use fettuccine for this carbonara but spaghetti would be fine also.
When the pasta is cooked, be sure to reserve about 2 cups of pasta water. Pasta water is really important to getting the finished pasta to the right consistency.
When your pasta is drained, add it to the skillet along with 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Add in the asparagus and garlic and pour in the egg mixture with the heat completely off. Don’t worry, there is plenty of residual heat in the pasta still.
Toss this together like crazy to try and keep the eggs evenly coated as they heat up.
If you do it right, you’ll have a silky smooth sauce, but if end up with some bits of cooked egg in the sauce. Don’t worry about this. Your pasta isn’t ruined. It happens to the best of us. Just keep folding the eggs into the pasta with the veggies and try to get it as smooth as possible.
At the end, hit the pasta with some lemon juice and season it with salt and pepper.
If the pasta is really thick, add more pasta water to keep the sauce smooth. If it’s thin and watery, keep tossing it in the skillet until it thickens a bit.
It might sound a bit tricky, but it’ll turn out great even if you mess up the eggs a bit.
Most importantly, serve the pasta as soon as possible (cold eggs are no good). Garnish each bowl with lots of grated Parm and lemon zest!
- Want to try a different asparagus pasta? Try this Creamy Asparagus Orzo!
What do you serve with asparagus carbonara?
There are many options for what to serve with this carbonara, but you should also feel okay serving it by itself. It’s a great solo meal.
If you are looking for a salad to serve with the pasta, try this roasted carrot salad!
A great side is garlic bread of course. I like this baguette garlic bread.
And this time of year, I like to serve a pasta like this with a bright salad like this greek salad.
What variations/substitutions could work?
There are a number of variations on carbonara. Here are a few ideas!
- To make the carbonara more traditional, add bacon or guanciale to the skillet. Cook it down until crispy and then use that fat to saute the asparagus.
- To make the sauce thicker, add two extra egg yolks to the sauce and whisk it together.
- Mix in some other cheeses like pecorino romano, which is common for carbonara.
- Change up the vegetable depending on what’s in season. Fresh peas work really well in this also.
Spring Asparagus Carbonara
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 bunch thin asparagus, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ cup white wine
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese
- 10 ounces fettuccine pasta
- 1 lemon, zest and juice
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Slice garlic and chop the bottom ends of the asparagus spears off (usually 1-2 inches). Then chop spears into about 2 inch pieces.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add a drizzle of oil along with the thin asparagus spears. Cook until they are bright green and are slightly tender, 4-5 minutes. Add garlic slivers and season with salt and pepper. Cook for another minute. Add white wine to deglaze pan and once it is cooked off, remove asparagus from skillet.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs with Parmesan cheese.
- Cook pasta according to instructions until al dente. Reserve two cups of pasta water. Whisk 1/2 cup of hot pasta water into the egg/cheese mixture to lighten it a bit.
- Drain pasta and add pasta to skillet with 1/4 cup pasta water over low heat. Fold in asparagus mixture.
- Pour egg mixture over the pasta and asparagus and stir rapidly to mix in the eggs off the heat. The goal is to make it into a smooth sauce on the pasta. If the pasta gets too thick, add more pasta water by the 1/4 cup. If you do this on the heat, the sauce will overcook.
- After a few minutes the egg mixture should barely hold onto the pasta as a sauce. Add fresh lemon juice to the pasta and season with salt and pepper.
- Serve carbonara immediately with lemon zest and extra grated Parm on top.
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Here are a few other great recipes to try!
Brooke
Perfect timing on this post. Your zucchini carbonara is a staple around here, and I was just thinking of making it tonight but with asparagus (there’s an abundance of it in my fridge).
Nick
You could easily mash those two recipes together Brooke in one big spring carbonara situation… ;)
Suz
How many eggs would you suggest for the sauce if I wanted to make a whole (1 lb.) box of pasta? My other half likes large portions and I want to have leftovers… My instinct says 5, but maybe that would make the dish too saucy since I won’t necessarily be scaling the asparagus up the same amount (unless I find a really big bundle), or be too hard to get the consistency right.
P.S. I’ve never commented before but I’ve been reading for several years now, and while I read a lot of other food blogs, I *actually make* a much higher percentage of the recipes you post than what I see anywhere else. Love your style, love your taste, love your confident and encouraging attitude! Thanks for a lot of great food. :)
Nick
Hey Suz! Thanks for the comment and for reading over the years. Always great to hear from lurker readers. ;) I think your instinct is right. I would do five eggs for a full pound of pasta, but you’ll definitely want to up the other ingredients also. Maybe do a little extra asparagus or fold in some other lightly sauteed spring veggies like peas or zucchini. Any would work fine, but one bundle of asparagus might get lost if you up the pasta.
One other note is that the physical aspects of the recipe are harder if you double it… it’s really hard to effectively toss a pound of pasta with ingredients if that makes sense. If you haven’t made a carbonara before, I’d recommend keeping it simple to start and if you get the technique down okay (and like it) then you can ramp it up for the next run. Either way… good luck!
Suz
Fair enough; you’re probably right! I’ll stick with the smaller amount. I’m crisping up a little pancetta in the skillet for another garnish as I type this… hopefully that’ll appease the dude who insists he can’t get full on vegetables! Thanks for the help.
Jessica @ Golden Brown and Delicious
I love this recipe. I’ve been debating all afternoon on what to make for dinner, and I think carbonara may have just made the menu!
Felicity
Love asparagus & this recipe!!! I’ve even tried using “zoodles” instead of regular pasta!
Antonia D.
I was just wondering if you need the wine for this recipe? I’m assuming you do but I don’t drink so I hate buying a whole bottle of wine just to use a little bit for a recipe ya know? Love your blog by the way :)
Nick
Hey Antonia! You definitely don’t. You can deglaze the pan a bit with a little veggie stock or,honestly, just water… ;)
Antonia D.
Oh okay great! Thanks for the quick reply. Now I can make this tonight :)
slope
Spring asparagus carbonara is a delightful and simple recipe that mixes the aromas of fresh asparagus with a rich and creamy carbonara sauce.