Fettucine with peas, asparagus and pancetta – Recipe Test Drive

On the surface, this recipe might seem ordinary, but it is so perfectly delicious that I'm ashamed I ever called it such. And there's a little something for every CliqueClack Food staff writer to like!

I mentioned in my Recipe Roundup this week that Epicurious’s recipe for fettucine with peas, asparagus and pancetta was on the surface rather ordinary but attracted me just the same because the ratio of pasta to “chunks” was just my style: chunky! It was gnawing away at me, so I cooked it.

There’s nothing ordinary about this recipe, unless you consider perfection to be run-of-the-mill. I suppose this is an example of the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” theory. Sure, the combination has been done before, but it’s tried and true for a reason, and that reason is perfection.

It was fairly easy to make and the directions were very well-written. I like it when I don’t have to alter anything in a recipe because they’ve clearly tried it out and accommodated for what you’ll run into while preparing the recipe. The only substitutions I made (c’mon, you know I had to substitute something) were plain Greek yogurt for the whipping cream and pecorino romano for the parmesan, because that’s what I keep in my house.

It was embarrassing at my dinner table. You would have thought we were eating our last meals on death row, the way we were ooing and ahing over every bite. But it’s not just us who’d love this recipe. As I was making it, I thought of the CliqueClack Food writers and their food quirks, and I realized that they’d all adore this dish as much as we did:

Jeff: Italian bacon. Wait — not enough to attract you? The vegetables are cooked in the pancetta grease. You’re all over this one now, aren’t you?

Kona: Asparagus. Just leave out the green onions and pancetta and add a little extra garlic and you’re good to go.

Bob: It’s pasta and bacon doused in cream and cheese … as good as yours.