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It may have fallen out of vogue in the past few decades, but like bike shorts, bodysuits and other 1990s trends, it’s time to bring pasta primavera back.
The dish, which has many variations, combines pasta with gently cooked and fresh vegetables in a sauce rich with cream and sharp cheese. Because it’s a pasta dish named after the Italian word for springtime, I long assumed it was an old recipe from Florence or Emilia-Romagna.
Get the recipe: Pasta Primavera.
In fact, it’s probably a North American invention, though its precise origins are disputed. According to Peter Elliot, co-author of “Sirio: The Story of My Life and Le Cirque,” the dish was first made by New York restaurateur Sirio Maccioni or his wife, Egidiana, in 1975 when they were vacationing at a Nova Scotia estate. In “The United States of Arugula,” author David Kamp considers the possibility that it was invented by one of Le Cirque’s chefs, Jean Vergnes. Amanda Hesser writes in “The Essential New York Times Cookbook” that though he claimed it as his own, “Vergnes apparently hated the dish so much that he forced his cooks to prepare it in a hall outside the kitchen.”
Also often cited as its inventor is the artist Edward Giobbi, who loved to cook so much that he wrote a number of cookbooks beginning in the early 1970s. The chef Jacques Pépin, who knew Giobbi back then, says Giobbi made it for Maccioni, who later put it on his restaurant’s menu. Regardless of who made it first, by the time the recipe landed in the premiere issue of “Food & Wine” magazine in 1978, it was well on its way to becoming an icon of the 1980s and 1990s.
Like so many trends, its popularity led to ubiquity. After every major publication and so many cookbooks published their own variations on the original, diners began to tire of the dish. Critics noted that despite its Italian name, pasta primavera wasn’t found on restaurant menus in Italy.
In 2002, writing for The Post, Stephanie Witt Sedgwick reported that Italians might sometimes describe a recipe as “alla primavera,” but when they did, it was unlikely that they were referring to a pasta dish.
Hesser, writing for the New York Times in 2009, made the argument that, from an ingredient and technique standpoint, the dish was as French as it was Italian. She called it “an absurdity of 1980s so-called seasonal cooking. Meant to be an expression of spring, the mad jumble of vegetables over pasta was mostly an expression of the death match between French and Italian cuisine (cream versus olive oil, sauce versus pasta).”
It’s a fair point: The recipe Le Cirque’s founder cites as closest to the one that was served at the restaurant includes a number of summer vegetables — broccoli, zucchini, green beans and tomatoes — in addition to spring asparagus and peas. Enriching a sauce with cream and butter is more common in French cuisine than it is in Italian. The recipe for pasta primavera that ran in the Times instructs the cook to blanch each green vegetable separately in salted water — a decidedly French level of fussiness.
Yet, in 2011, Barbara Damrosch unearthed a recipe in Italian culinary instructor and historian Giuliano Bugialli’s “Bugialli on Pasta” that could be seen as a precursor to modern pasta primavera. “His Pasta Alle Erbe, which he translates as ‘Spaghetti With Spring Vegetables,’ is taken from a Renaissance Florentine cookbook and it features asparagus, scallions, peas, Swiss chard, and artichokes,” Damrosch wrote. “In Florence, Swiss chard could easily winter over and come up in spring. Artichokes would do the same, their tasty buds edible until their purple flowers open in June. He adds lemon juice, pancetta, chicken broth and olive oil. No cheese.” And apparently no cream, either.
Its origin may be beside the point. When made well, with fresh ingredients and not too much fuss, pasta primavera is delicious. Full of vegetables and coated with a barely there gloss of cream and parmesan sauce, this somewhat seasonal pasta dish is just as good today as it was when it was all the rage.
In my interpretation, mushrooms are sauteed in a skillet along with spring onions or scallions. A pinch of red pepper flakes adds a little spark. In a large pot, boil the pasta in salted water, and when it’s about halfway done, add the green vegetables: broccoli, snap peas, asparagus, frozen green peas. These will be bright green and tender when the pasta is al dente. Reserve some of the pasta water and then drain everything into a colander. Stir some cream and parmesan into the mushroom mixture, warming until the cheese melts, and then toss everything together with a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I like mine extra saucy, so I’d add another splash of cream. Serve warm, topped with lots of cracked black pepper and fresh basil.
Get the recipe: Pasta Primavera.
Catch up on this week’s Eat Voraciously recipes:
Monday: Alsatian Leek and Carrot Soup With Semolina
Tuesday: Kolambi Kaju Curry
Wednesday: Green Frittata With Leeks, Kale and Parsley
More recipes from Eat Voraciously
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