Quick Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta with Lemon

Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta is an easy vegetarian recipe full of light spring flavor. You can have this asparagus pasta dish on the table in under 30 minutes! This pasta recipe is delicious with a nice crisp white wine. Disclosure: Some of the wines discussed here were provided as complimentary samples.

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• What makes this recipe work
• Ingredients
• Making Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta
• Wine Pairing
• Recipe card

What makes this recipe work

There’s very little cooking involved with this asparagus goat cheese pasta recipe.

You quickly steam the fresh asparagus as the the pasta cooks. The goat cheese based sauce quickly comes together by tossing the cooked pasta with the cheese, olive oil and reserved pasta water. Finished with the vibrant flavors of squeezed lemon juice.

The resulting goat cheese pasta with asparagus is creamy but still fairly light. Full of fresh flavors from the lemon juice, herbs and goat cheese. A great way to enjoy asparagus while it is in season!

I originally put this Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta together because I already had some asparagus and goat cheese on hand from making some prosciutto wrapped asparagus for a gathering.

Ingredients

Bow tie pasta tossed with asparagus and goat cheese, and a squeeze of lemon, is a simple vegetarian meal full of spring flavor. Here are some notes on the main ingredients you will need:

Asparagus is definitely a spring vegetable, one of the first local crops you will see available each growing season. I recommend getting asparagus when it is fresh and in season. I prefer asparagus with stocks that are thin or medium thickness. If you have thicker stalks, they will need a bit more cooking time.

Goat cheese: I typically get a 4 ounce package of plain, soft goat cheese to make this recipe.

Lemon: This recipe calls for 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, about half of one lemon.

Tarragon is an herb that goes well with asparagus. Fresh herbs are preferred, but you can use dried tarragon if necessary. We have also used fresh chives, as shown above, instead of the tarragon and that worked well. I would use fresh chives over dried tarragon if those were your options.

Pasta: We like to make this asparagus goat cheese pasta with bow tie pasta, also known as farfalle.

I used a whole wheat bow tie pasta most recently and that was good. You could also use ziti or other pasta of your choice.

Making Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta

Below is an overview of the steps for making this recipe along with some tips. Head down to the recipe card for all the details.

Begin boiling water for the pasta. You will cook the pasta according to package instructions as you prepare and cook the asparagus. Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking water for making the sauce.

Prep the asparagus: Break a couple of stalks of asparagus. Discard the thicker woody portion opposite the tip end.

Cut the rest of the asparagus stalks in similar proportion to the initial stalks that you do by hand.

Steam the asparagus as the pasta cooks. The asparagus only needs a few minutes to steam; avoid overcooking. If you have a vegetable steamer, that is preferable.

But you can also just place the asparagus in 2 inches of boiling water to briefly cook the asparagus.

Toss the cooked pasta immediately with the goat cheese, olive oil, reserved cooking water and lemon, followed by the asparagus and tarragon (or chives). Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

Wine Pairing

Wine pairing with asparagus can be tricky – but it can work! Our article on How to Pair Wine with Asparagus covers the topic in detail.

For our most recent pairing, we opened the 2022 Santiago Ruiz ($22, 13% ABV) from Rias Baixas. This white wine is an Albariño based blend comprised of 74% Albariño, 8% Loureiro, 8% Godello, 5% Treixadura, 5% Caiño Blanco.

The Santiago Ruiz has tropical fruit on the nose, including a hint of banana. On the palate, notes of lemon and kiwi as well as some of that tropical fruit. Softer acidity than some Albariño, with a pleasant round mouthfeel. Paired nicely with the fresh asparagus flavors in the goat cheese pasta dish. A good pairing!

Donnachiara pairing

Several years ago, we had a chance to do a live Twitter tasting with Donnachiara Wines from the Campania region of Italy. For the Twitter tasting, we opened a bottle of white and a red from Donnachiara on a beautiful late Friday October afternoon.

The strong vegetal flavor of asparagus can make it a tricky pairing with wine, as this Food & Wine article explains. While asparagus alone is especially problematic for pairing, tossing asparagus with wine friendly cheese creates an opening for some good pairings. This dish also has lemon, suggesting we need a wine with some bright fruit notes.

Of course, I was starting with a wine in hand that I thought might go well with our Asparagus Goat Cheese Pasta.

The 2017 Donnachiara Greco di Tufo ($16, 13% ABV) has a lemony nose, which bodes well for the pairing with this dish. On the palate, I get pear and a bit of grapefruit, showing some acidity. There’s also nice underlying minerality.

The crisp white Greco di Tufo from Donnachiara definitely works nicely with the pasta. Both the dish and the wine have a vibrant freshness that makes it a perfect spring pairing!

More about Donanachiara Wines

Donnachiara, founded in 2005, is located in Avellino, which is in the Irpinia DOC. They make the three Irpinia DOCG wines–Fiano di Avellino, Taurasi and Greco di Tufo–as well Aglianico and Falanghina.

I learned on our Twitter chat that Irpinia is named for the local wolves in the area. It is mountainous and cool but with enough sunlight to ripen the grapes well.

Donnachiara is almost entirely female led. CEO Ilaria Pettito was in New York for an event; our Twitter tasting coincided with her visit. Ilaria is supported the this role by her mother Chiara, the niece of Donna Chiara Mazzarelli Petitto, for whom this company is dedicated.

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