Creamy Asparagus Bow Tie Pasta
A Meal You Can Make Any Day Of The Week
Creamy Asparagus Bow Tie Pasta is so simple to make, with very few ingredients, but so delicious to eat. Asparagus, cream cheese, pasta water, and a few pantry staple seasonings come together for the ultimate in quick comfort food.
Years ago I was given a cookbook of an old Italian woman whose name I cannot remember. There was a recipe for a Creamy Asparagus Bow Tie Pasta that I cannot remember either.
I spent years trying to recreate it from memory and this is as close as I can get. Truth be told this is just as good as I remember and I remember her recipe being a lot more complicated.
This recipe cooks fast! It is literally done in less than an hour.
You can also swap out any vegetable for the asparagus or you can add more vegetables to this recipe. I was thinking that you can add my Sautéed Mushrooms to this and it would be quite delicious so make this recipe your own!
Seasoning Is A Suggestion
If I said it once, I will say it again: seasoning is a suggestion. I include suggested measurements for seasonings because people demand it.
I strongly encourage everyone to taste their food when safe to do so as you cook and adjust to what you like. As you can see above, I like to use A LOT of black pepper.
The beauty of learning to cook is that you can customize any recipe to your liking.
For example, you can use as much or as little of the chicken bouillon as you like. I like to use either the Better Than Bouillon brand or the Knorr Chicken Bouillon powdered kind.
The Sauce Will Come Together
You will see on the recipe card that the sauce is made from very simple ingredients, mainly cream cheese and pasta water with some chicken bouillon. I suggest adding the cooked pasta to this dish as it simmers on the stove because the starch from the pasta will help thicken this sauce up to perfection.
Creamy Asparagus Bow Tie Pasta Recipe
Creamy Asparagus Bow Tie Pasta is an easy meal to make any day of the week. A few simple cooking steps will yield a wonderful meal that everyone will love. Crisp asparagus, cream cheese, and a few seasonings served with bow tie pasta. Creamy, comforting, and delicious.
Ingredients
- 1 box of Bow Tie Pasta (16 ounces)
- 1 brick of Cream Cheese (8 ounces)
- 1 bunch of Asparagus (approximately 12 to 15 spears)
- 2 cups of Pasta Water from cooking the pasta
- 1/2 to 1 tablespoon of Chicken Bouillon
- 2 tablespoons of Butter
- 1 teaspoon of Salt
- 1 teaspoon of Pepper
- 2 teaspoons of Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon of Onion Powder
- Pinch of Nutmeg
Instructions
- Wash, trim, and drain the asparagus and let it dry. I cut or break off the woody parts towards the end of the asparagus spear. You can usually know how much to take off by bending the whole spear in half and the "no good" part will naturally snap off at the point where it is woody.
- Set the cream cheese out on the counter about an hour before you are going to make this dinner.
- Boil the bow tie pasta so that it is al dente and when it is done cooking, before you drain the pasta, reserve 2 to 2.5 cups of the pasta water and stir in the chicken bouillon to the hot pasta water for it to dissolve.
- Pat the asparagus dry and cut it into 1 inch pieces.
- Add the butter to a deep sided skillet and sauté for three minutes. Season the asparagus with a little salt and pepper and also the garlic and onion powders. Continue to sauté 5 to 10 more minutes. You want the asparagus to still have some crispness to it. How fast it cooks will depend on how thick the asparagus is. Taste a piece and decide.
- When the asparagus is cooked to your desired crispness, cut the cream cheese brick into 6 to 8 small cubes and add it to the skillet.
- Heat should be on low to medium. Sauté the asparagus with the cream cheese until the cream cheese starts to melt. Stir well to break up the lumps and get this to start being creamy. Add the nutmeg. Stir.
- Slowly start to add the pasta water about 1/4 cup at a time. Whisk/stir each time you add some to make the cheese sauce creamy. You may or may not use ALL of the pasta water. Look at the sauce and decide. It should coat the back of a spoon. You can make it as thick or as thin as you like so eyeball this. Bring this all to a simmer and let it simmer on very low temp for 5 minutes.
- Add all of the pasta to the skillet and toss to coat in the sauce.
- Serve topped with black pepper and you can add Parmesan cheese to the top if you like.