Asparagus and Egg Pasta Salad

Served cold or at room temperature, Asparagus and Egg Pasta Salad is a dish best served in late spring or early summer when fresh asparagus is readily available. Bring this dish to your next picnic or potluck and you’ll surely be the belle of the ball!

Dear Reader, I know you are here for this wonderful Asparagus and Egg Pasta Salad recipe, but I’d like to tell you a story first. It’s a story that some of you domestic folks might know all to well!

Do you and your family and/or spouse use a grocery app on your smartphones?  We do!  There’s this awesome app that allows each of us to share the same grocery list.  It works wonders!  You simply key in what it is you need and the next time you go grocery shopping, or if your spouse decides to be a dear and go pick up the needed items, he or she will know exactly what to purchase. 

Well, that’s all good and fine, but we tend to forget to use it properly – or sometimes, we forget to use it at all.  For example, the chalkboard near our kitchen usually has a list of things to buy: butter, eggs, vitamins, an ironing board cover, etc.  In haste, we sometimes jot it down on the chalkboard and forget to transfer it to our grocery app later.  Let me tell you a story.

INSPIRATION FOR ASPARAGUS AND EGG PASTA SALAD

On my way home from work, I stopped at the store and picked up eggs.  I knew we had none at home, so I placed them in my cart with the rest of my items. John.e, on his way home from work, remembered that he had written eggs on the chalkboard earlier that week.  He stopped in and bought a dozen as well.  Once he arrived home, he placed the eggs he bought on a different shelf in the refrigerator, and never the two cartons of eggs did meet. 

A few days later, I asked John.e to go to the grocery store to buy bread.  I’m assuming that he had forgotten about the eggs he had purchased a few days earlier, and he purchased another dozen.  Now, there are two of us and the only time we eat eggs is on the weekends.  Before they expired, we knew we had to do something with them. 

We decided to hard-boil a dozen and take them as snacks/lunch to work, but they never ended up in our lunch bags.  So, today, I had 12 hard-boiled eggs in my fridge, and I needed to do something with them, otherwise, they would end up being tossed out.

Pasta salad is a go-to for me in the summertime, and if I whip up a large batch of it, it will take the stress out of packing something for lunch at work the next day, and I can grill up some tofu or a veggie burger to go with it for the next day’s dinner as well.  

With the dozen hard-boiled eggs in hand, I raided my fridge to see what I could come up with.  Since pasta salad is always a go-to, I chopped up some veggies, and a great-tasting pasta salad was born.

NOT ALL RECIPES NEED TO BE PRECISE

Sometimes, Dear Reader, a recipe is a well-thought-out process.  Recipe developers will measure and scoop, adjust seasoning levels, and add or remove ingredients altogether to find the right balance and to perfect the dish.  And sometimes, as in the case of this salad, a recipe is born out of motive and luck. 

When I decided to update this recipe just recently, with the sole purpose of updating the photos, I put the recipe to a more difficult taste test.  John.e and I will eat a dish even if it doesn’t taste great.  Because, sometimes, an invented recipe is a complete miss, but you eat it anyway.  When this recipe was first made, it was just us two.  Now, however, my daughter, McKenna, lives with us.  Her tastes are pickier.  If she doesn’t love it, she won’t eat it.

So, with the new photos taken, I packaged up the pasta and placed it in the fridge.  That was the last time I saw it.  Both McKenna and John.e ate the entire thing.  I knew already that John.e liked it, but when McKenna said she loved it, I knew it was a winner.  

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE:

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this Asparagus and Egg Pasta Salad recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

• Pasta – Any short pasta will do just fine, like penne, macaroni, fusilli, etc.
• Asparagus – Buy one bunch, which is usually about 12 spears.
• Eggs – Hard boil the eggs and allow them to fully cool. I’m using a full dozen in this recipe.
• Celery – This is optional. I love celery in pasta salad, but it’s not for everyone.
• Carrots – Julienne the carrots rather than dice them. It looks better and makes the carrots less crunchy.
• Onion – Use a small onion. You can substitute the onion with green onion if you wish.
• Parsley
• Salted Butter – If you don’t have salted butter, add a bit of salt to the asparagus when cooking them.
• Mayonnaise – Regular or low fat – the choice is yours.
• Milk – Use whole milk.
• Corn – You can cook fresh corn and cool it, or you can use canned corn. Be sure to drain it well.
• Seasonings – You will need salt, ground black pepper, and garlic powder.

ADD YOUR FAVOURITE VEGGIES TOO!

When updating the photos, I did two things to make the dish even better!  I added corn to the salad.  I did this for two reasons.  First, I thought that the addition of the corn made the salad a little more summery, and also, I wanted to add even more veggies to the salad than I had before. 

Secondly, when adding the hard-boiled eggs, I decided to remove the yolks and discard them.  I used only the white of the eggs, because I didn’t want the salad to take on a very yellow colour.  It’s up to you if you add them in or leave them out.

COOKING PASTA

Let me talk to you a bit about how to get the pasta just right without overcooking it. Someone once told me that I prepare pasta like an old Italian grandma. That has stuck we me for so many years. You see, Dear Reader, I’m far from perfect, but cooking pasta is one thing I can certainly do perfectly. I don’t care what the back of the pasta package says, cook your pasta according to taste and texture. Ignore everything else. Here are my 4 steadfast rules:

Rule #1: Say no to oil!

Do you add oil to your pasta water before adding the pasta? Stop that right now! I don’t know who’s responsible for that, but I have seen some TV chefs do it! If you add oil to your pasta water, do you know what happens when you put the sauce on it? The sauce won’t stick as well as it should. It will slide off because the oil prevents it from sticking.

Rule #2: Add extra salt!

Salt the water. I used to be so afraid of salting pasta water because I thought it would be too salty to eat. Salting the water, before you add the pasta, is the only chance you get to season that pasta. Let the water come to a full boil before adding your salt. The water should taste like the ocean. Don’t dump the salt in; stir it in. Preventing the salt from settling at the bottom of your pot will keep your pot looking shiny and new. If you have pots with what looks like a tarnished or unpolished interior bottom, it’s because salt sat at the bottom of your pot.

Rule #3: Get that pasta moving about immediately!

Stir the pasta for a good minute when you first add it to the water. This helps to wash off some of the starch and prevents the pasta from sticking to the pot and to itself. I always pull out a piece of pasta 4 minutes before the package says it will be ready. Taste it. Chew it. It shouldn’t be completely soft. If it has a bit of bite left in the center, get it out of the water and drain it immediately. You can thank me later!

Rule #4: Do not rinse!

So many of us are tempted to rinse pasta under running water after it’s been drained. I think it comes from the notion that it gets rid of the starch. Well, it does in a way. But, when pasta begins to cool off and dry, it becomes a little sticky. That stickiness soaks up pasta sauce, so don’t flush it out! A quick drain is all you need. Get the pasta into a bowl or onto a plate. Get the sauce on it and serve it up.