🥔 Celebrate Spring with Our Delightful One Potato Fettuccine & Bruschetta Recipe
Fresh Ingredients, Easy Preparation, and Family Fun at the Farmer's Market
This delightful pasta dish, featuring tender asparagus, English peas, and a mix of spring herbs, is all about celebrating the season's best produce. We love a trip to the farmer's market as a fun family outing on Saturday or Sunday, to pick out the freshest veggies. This recipe can be easily adapted to use any seasonal vegetables you want, while still enjoying the filling flavors of a creamy fresh-herb pasta sauce. Paired with eggplant bruschetta topped with herbed goat cheese, this meal can be prepared in 30 minutes.
For the bruschetta, if you can’t easily find focaccia bread, a nice sliced baguette will do the trick, and if you’re not a fan of eggplant, substitute with your preferred jarred bruschetta topping (usually made of tomatoes or artichoke hearts). This side dish gives you a lot of options to customize!
Got time?
This pasta recipe includes a quick cream sauce you can make in under 10 minutes.
However, if you want to save even more time, you can simply buy a bottle of your family’s favorite pasta cream sauce to use in the recipe.
No time? Freeze it!
Did you know that you can freeze pasta - including an already sauced batch - for up to a month? Cooked pasta (whether fresh or dried) and sauce can be put into a freezer bag and frozen for up 4 weeks. Before freezing, make sure your pasta and sauce has cooled to room temperature within an hour of cooking. We like to use leak-proof BPA-free reusable freezer bags, since they are easy to place in warm water to thaw. You can then warm the defrosted pasta in a sauce pan and enjoy when you want. If you’re looking for a meal-prep dish you can store for a quick, healthy dinner during the week, this is a good choice!
We always recommend reading through the full recipe before starting to cook - that way all the steps will go more smoothly.
Fettucine with Spring Vegetables & Bruschetta
For 4 Servings
One Potato Kitchen Tools: large pot, small pot, large sauté pan, colander, chef’s knife, cutting board, baking sheet, bread knife, bread cutting board
From Your Pantry: salt (kosher or sea), pepper, olive oil
Ingredients:
1 lb Fettuccine (or your favorite pasta)
2 cups Cream (room temperature - set out for ~10 min.)
Bundle of Asparagus (sliced into 2-3” pieces)
1 cup Mushrooms (sliced)
1 cup Peas (frozen or fresh)
2 cloves garlic (minced)
Sundried Tomatoes (jar)
Fresh Spring Herbs - Thyme, Basil, Chive, Parsley (2 sprigs of thyme, ~2 tbs each of the other fresh herbs)
Focaccia Bread
Eggplant Caponata (various options from Amazon)
1 small log Goat Cheese (herbed or plain)
Parmesan Cheese - to taste
Shop Ingredients on Instacart from Eataly
Alternative InstaCart Link.
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375° F.
Fill the large pot with water and cover. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. While the water is heating, slice the asparagus into 2-3" pieces. When the water reaches a boil, season lightly with salt and add pasta. Cook until the pasta is al dente (about 8-10 minutes, or according to package).
Before draining the pasta, reserve 2 cups of pasta water in a pyrex glass on the side. Drain pasta in a colander place and place the pasta back into the pot, drizzle with a little bit of olive oil and toss to prevent sticking.
Prepare the Bruschetta Side: Slice focaccia into 1/4" thick pieces and lay them on a baking sheet. Drizzle slices lightly with olive oil, sprinkle them with salt and place in the oven. Cook 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove focaccia from oven, place a heaping tablespoon of the eggplant caponata on each slice and top with a teaspoon of herbed goat cheese.
Prepare the Cream Sauce: Over low heat, sauté 2 cloves of minced garlic in a sauté pan until softened, about 2 minutes. Add 1 cup white wine (we recommend sauvignon blanc) plus some sprigs of fresh Thyme. Simmer until reduced to half the amount.
When the white wine and thyme has reduced by half, add 2 cups of room temperature cream to the simmering pan of white wine until warm, then add 1/2 cup of seasoned reserved pasta water.
Simmer and continue to reduce together for a few more minutes, add chopped spring herbs at end, and season to taste with salt. (Note: we recommend adding the fresh herbs to the broth a mere 2 minutes before pouring it onto the pasta so you get the bright, fresh flavors.)
Prepare the Veggies: Sauté the sliced asparagus in garlic with olive oil for 3-4 minutes, until the color changes pale. Add sliced mushrooms and sweat for a couple of minutes as well, making sure they have enough space in the pan. Season the veggies in the pan to taste. Add frozen peas and warm for 2-3 more minutes. (If using fresh peas, add to the pan earlier with the asparagus.)
Finishing Touches: Add all the sautéed vegetables to the pasta pot, then add your cream sauce to the pasta and vegetables, slowly to desired consistency. Add the sundried tomatoes and stir to combine. Warm over low heat for 1 minute, until the broth coats the pasta. Sprinkle with Parmesan and serve accompanied by the bruschetta on the side. Enjoy!
Substitutions and Dietary Considerations
Dairy Free: You can use vegan cream (ideal for making a cream sauce) or substitute a nondairy milk, vegan goat’s cheese, and vegan parmesan. If you want to omit the creamy consistency, a garlic lemon sauce is a nice substitution here. Simply add lemon juice to the sautéed garlic, toss in the fresh herbs, and pour over the pasta. You can also omit the goat’s cheese on the bruschetta.
Gluten-free: Feel free to use your favorite gluten-free pasta in this recipe, and to purchase a GF Focaccia or other bread for the bruschetta.
Increase the Protein: Add some prosciutto or grilled sliced chicken breast to the dish.
Hold the garlic: If you have picky eaters who don’t like garlic, you can easily leave it out when preparing this dish.
Ultimate Time-Saving Hacks:
Buy your favorite pasta cream sauce instead of making our quick version
Buy a frozen vegetable blend instead of sautéeing vegetables - this can be added directly to the cream broth and pasta
Getting Kids Involved
Kids can help assemble the bruschetta and toss the finished pasta
Combine the pasta ingredients together with tongs
For older kids, have them help with making the cream sauce
Pro Tips
Picky Eaters?
Let kids sprinkle the Parmesan on top of their pasta themselves, sampling it after each sprinkle until it tastes just right to them. It's a great way to get them in touch with their taste buds!
You can have your kids sample the fresh herbs and choose their favorite, so you can create the right herb combo and balance for them.
Don’t rinse the pasta with cold water after draining! The sauce sticks better to noodles that have not been rinsed.
Shop in season: Find the freshest herbs and spring vegetables at your local farmer’s market.
Tips for using our online Shopping List
Remember: In our linked Shopping List, the cart might have multiple brands of the same ingredient listed - in case you want the sugar free or organic version, for example. All you need to do to have the ingredients quickly delivered is
Verify your location
Choose your preferred store and delivery service (Instacart will show you how many items in the list are available at your preferred store; if the item we’ve recommended is not available they should show you an alternative item)
Confirm the items and quantities that you want to purchase - Click the “Add” button next to the ingredient you want to add to your cart
Check out and schedule your delivery
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Brilliant! Will make it for my guests this weekend!
This was always one of our favorites in the meal kits. Looking forward to making it again!