Pasta salad with asparagus, strawberries and basil pesto
Recipe for 4 people
For the asparagus
10 white asparagus spears (20 mm)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Ingredients for the basil pesto
1 bunch of basil
50 ml olive oil
1 garlic clove
10 g pine nuts
20 g parmesan
Ingredients for the pasta salad
250 g farfalle
2 beef tomatoes
1 small bunch of basil
6-8 black olives, pitted
30 ml olive oil
15 g raspberry vinegar
1 pinch sugar
Splash of lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper
For the decoration
8 fresh strawberries
1 tbsp. green peppercorns
1 bunch of rocket
Preparation
Step 1:
Peel the asparagus, cut off the ends and slice lengthwise into strips. Marinate the thin asparagus strips with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and leave to stand for at least 10 minutes.
Step 2:
Peel the garlic glove and cut into small pieces. Mix the basil with the olive oil and garlic and crush with a purée rod. Depending on your taste, you can purée the pesto to a very fine or slightly chunky consistency. Dry roast the pine nuts in a coated frying pan, chop them and add to the pesto. Grate the parmesan finely and stir into the pesto.
Step 3:
Boil the farfalle in salted water and rinse with cold water. Peel the skin off the beef tomatoes, quarter them, remove the core and roughly cut into large cubes. Pluck off the basil leaves and cut them into fine strips. Cut the olives into rings. Use the remaining ingredients to make a dressing for the pasta salad, mix in gently with a spoon and then mix everything together.
Step 4:
Arrange the pasta salad on large plates. First lay the asparagus strips in a diamond pattern or in stripes. You can add the remaining marinade juice to the pasta salad if you wish. Using a ladle, pile the pasta salad high in the centre of the plate. Arrange the strawberries around the pasta salad, sprinkle the peppercorns on top and decorate with a few pretty rocket leaves. Finally, just drizzle some basil pesto around the salad and your fresh spring salad is ready!
Tips & Tricks
- When buying asparagus, make sure the ends of the spears look fresh and juicy.
- You can of course prepare the pasta salad using any other type of pasta, depending on what you have in the cupboard. Here we used mini farfalle.
- If you want to serve the salad in a bowl for barbecuing, put the garnish on top and mix the salad just before serving it.
