One-Pan Pasta & Beans with Asparagus

The transitional season calls for easy, creamy pasta

Apr 12, 2024

Hello, and thanks for subscribing to this newsletter! There have been a number of new subscribers in the past month, so I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce myself and this space for anyone who’s new.

I’m Lukas, the author of five cookbooks, with a sixth coming soon. In general, I’ve always deeply loved recipes and in particular, cleverly easy ones. While I love to cook and bake and sample most things, I gravitate towards fueling food that’s nutritious as well as flavorful and fun to cook.

Here on Substack a few themes have emerged in the past year and a half. I did a 6-week series on vegetarian protein, which is related to how I’m finally getting into tempeh. Additionally, I’ve been a card-carrying Rancho Gordo Bean Club member for about a decade, and I also love tofu.

Vegetarian Protein Recipes

Tempeh Recipes

Bean Recipes

Tofu Recipes

Thanks for reading! Today we’re doing some beans. Hope you enjoy. —Lukas

Of course the ideal backdrop for asparagus (my favorite vegetable) is a crisp, sunny, Spring Sunday where the bright green of a fresh stalk stands in sharp contrast to the brilliant blue sky. If that were the case right now where I live, I’d just steam it and dress it in a zingy vinaigrette.

But the weather instead has been gray, windy, wet, and moody. Typical for this time of year, but hard to settle into. So instead, my spring asparagus is going in a pasta direction. Transitional weather is after all a great time for pasta, particularly a creamy one that you can eat with a spoon.

The brilliance of pasta and beans, treated here not as a soup but as a pasta dish, is in how the starchy beans, mingling with the starchy pasta water (starch on starch, oh yes), create a sauce that richly cloaks everything. It looks soupy at first, but it thickens quickly as things cool. I’ve opted for vegetable stock to fortify the flavor, and have also worked in a seasonal asparagus angle.

Additionally, I’m often dismayed by how much asparagus can go to waste by using the “snap off the woody ends” prepping method. Reminded by an old Harold McGee article, I sliced up all of the green part of the asparagus into very thin coins. It’s a perfect solution, utilizing as much of the vegetable as possible, but also cooking quickly and eliminating the issue of unpleasant fibrous bits.

If you’ve awakened to yet another windy, wet, overcast day when you were irrationally wishing for the unofficial start to summer instead, let me just say: You could be eating this in less than 30 minutes, and it might be the perfect balm.

Recipe Video

One-Pot Pasta & Beans with Asparagus

I’ve made these with Alubia Blancas, but any cooked bean will do.
Rather than snapping off the woody ends of asparagus, here you’ll slice as much of the stalk as you can into thin coins — which allows wasting less of this precious vegetable.
I love the fennel here, but sweet onion works just as well.
Remember, it’s not that hard to make a quick vegetable stock.
The dish may look too soupy at first, but the liquids rapidly thicken once taken off the heat.
Loosen up leftovers with a bit of water or broth as you reheat them in a skillet over medium heat.

Yield 4 servings | Prep & cook time About 30 minutes

8 ounces fresh asparagus (half a bunch), sliced into thin coins
Olive oil
½ small-to-medium head fennel or sweet onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced into thin slabs
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon dried chili flakes
2 cups cooked beans, plus ¼ cup of its cooking liquid (or a 15-ounce can)
1 ½ cup small pasta (mini shells, tubetti, maceroni, etc)
3 cups vegetable broth
1 tablespoon unsalted butter (optional)
Freshly grated parmesan or pecorino, for serving (optional)
Freshly ground black pepper, for serving
Flaky salt, for serving
Chopped mint, parsley, and/or fennel fronds, for serving

1. Trim off any white, dried out ends from the asparagus and discard them, then use a sharp knife to cut each spear into thin coins, between ¼ and ⅛-inch thick. Set aside the asparagus tips if you like.

2. Set a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat and when hot, swirl in a thin film of olive oil. Add the fennel, garlic, salt, and chili flakes, and cook until the vegetables are soft and sweet, 8 to 12 minutes.

3. Add the beans and bean-cooking liquid (or the entire contents of the can) along with the pasta and broth or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cover the pan and cook until the pasta is al dente, stirring occasionally to keep the noodles from sticking to the pan — check the package instructions but 10 to 14 minutes is the ballpark.

3. Stir the asparagus and butter (if using) into the pasta, cover the pan, and cook for another minute or two, just until the asparagus is tender. Give another good stir, taste for salt (if you used water instead of broth you’ll likely need more salt), then divide among serving bowls. It may seem a little soupy at first, but it thickens rapidly off the heat. Shower each serving bowl with cheese, pepper, flaky salt, herbs, and extra olive oil if you like.