An easy and tasty pasta dish

Hey All,

It would appear the weekends are for blogging. YAY! The weekday grind has been pretty wild, albeit productive, this past week. Things continue to look amazing in my world, but I don't think I should go into too much detail. I'll leave it at realizing once again how amazing, talented, and super smart my 9-to-5 is/are. It is a humbling honor to be a part of that scientific team.

About this pasta thing: Its crazy easy, and just perfect after a long day.

I think this is a take on a Rachael Ray recipe....I usually can't stand her, but she's usually the one on when I wake up and put on the TV on the weekend. Once in a great while she has a gem of a recipe....once in a great while. But I'll stop with the libel already, I've got enough links in here to get me into all sorts of trouble.

This uses the asparagus that I scored crazy on last week. First order of business is to clean and cut the asparagus into bite sized pieces. There's a trick I learned on Food Network, I can't remember which chef, to getting perfect non-woody asparagus. Take one of the medium diameter pieces from the bunch and bend it and see where it breaks. This is usually within the first 1/4 of the stem...compliments of some sort of crazy physics, this is the line between the woody and non-woody parts of the stem. Use this as the guide to cut it all up. I'm hoping to start taking more pictures in the future, right now, I'm just having fun sharing my food ideas.

In a saucepan, combine a jar of white pasta sauce and a can of whole baby clams. Gently heat that up. As for which pasta sauce, let your taste and budget be your guide. I've done this with just about every type of alfredo imaginable...with sundried tomatoes, with roasted garlic, extra parmesan, you name it....its always turned out well.

Bring a pot of water for pasta to a boil, don't forget to add salt. That's an Anne Burrell trick. I often poke fun at the amount of salt she uses, as I don't use a lot of added salt, but she's always right...Anne is always right! In case you hadn't noticed, I simply adore her and Ina Garten. That bit of extra salt adds flavor I've been missing out on for years. Add 6 servings of pasta and the asparagus. Cook until the pasta is done. Again, let your imagination and preference be your guide. I've done this with penne, plain old egg noodles, spaghetti, linguini, rotini...usually whatever is in the pantry. Drain the pasta.

Pour the pasta sauce over the pasta asparagus stuff. Mix it up. If you've got it a quick grate of parmesan or other good italian cheese over the top is perfect. Serve it with a salad and good bread....delicious!