Pasta Improv

Inspired by the onslaught of expiry dates (heh, that's always good, eh?), I threw random things together to use my almost-expired fresh pasta up tonight, and, hey, it's not bad!

And easy...

So, no formal recipe here, just a bunch of stuff thrown together pretty quick.

I used 1/4 cup finely chopped red onion (but would have preferred slightly less of shallots, instead). I sauteed that with a couple tablespoons of olive oil and 2-3 tbsps diced proscuitto ends I scored from Bosa's. Gave it about five minutes to get happy over medium heat. Added two or three cloves chopped garlic and cooked it another minute or two, then threw in half a pound of asparagus, chopped into 1" pieces, with 1/4 cup chopped back bacon (aka "Canadian bacon" for Americans), covered it, and let it cook for five minutes.

After the asparagus was tender-crisp, I threw in some chopped slices of extra-hot capicollo, maybe 1/4 cup (deli-sliced, but chopped into little thin bands), 1/4 cup of Avjar (a Macedonian roasted red pepper, onion, and eggplant spread) and 1/4 cup light cream and 1/4 cup of pasta water.

I mixed it all up and threw it in the cooked pasta (two huge portions, three small ones), tossed it all well, and that's that. I'd have loved to have thrown some white wine in, though, instead of the pasta water... :) I think red would be too rich with this. You want the peppery capicollo to pop, which it would do against a clean white wine, methinks. No?

Still! Pretty decent. Good use of asparagus and leftover deli meats. :) And a well-spent 15 minutes.

What I like about improv meals is, it's probably a once-in-a-lifetime meal. How fun is that?