Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Lemon Pasta (Semi-Fail)

Because Facebook, online "shopping," and the vast collections of blogs I read everyday aren't enough, I have added a new addiction: Pinterest.  Oh my.  To those of you who haven't found it yet, I should probably tell you to resist and enjoy your current level of productivity.  And, you know, real life.  But I won't.  It's never really fun being a good influence.  You should start investigating it today.  And then spend the rest of your life trying to find/implement/imitate other people's genius ideas.  Because some people are seriously so creative.  It's astounding.  (Those people probably didn't spend three hours on their Saturday morning browsing other people's creativity and instead created their own.  Details.)

I have found so many amazing ideas for the house I don't yet own.  And even more ideas for the house I can only dream about owning.  And every time I shout out to my husband, "Guess what I just pinned?!" he groans, sprouts another gray hair, and visualizes our bank account declining.  (Then he goes back to his video game.  I'm not the only one with addictions.)

And it's another avenue for expanding my bank of "Must Try" recipes.  (This at least Alex appreciates with no hesitation.)  I love that the browsing is entirely visual.  As much as I like to read, I need a picture of a recipe to fall in love with it.  I've started a board with many, many, many recipes, and I'm sure I'll have many more - but I just couldn't wait to try this one.

Recipe: (from Smitten Kitchen via Pinterest)

(Disclaimer: My end result did not mirror the result shown on the original recipe.)

1 pound spiral shaped pasta (I used Barilla Plus)
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 to 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon peel
2 teaspoons chopped fresh tarragon (which I did not have, so I used basil)
1 5 to 5 1/2 ounce log soft fresh goat cheese (I scoured the cheese display at the grocery store and plain old goat cheese was nowhere to be found.  I found Asiago Goat Cheese and used it.  This may have contributed to my later problems.)
Fresh lemon juice to taste (optional)

Cook your pasta in a large pot of well-salted water for 2-3 minutes less than the package directions.  Add asparagus the last 2-3 minutes, until firm tender.  Drain both pasta and asparagus together, reserving about one cup of the pasta water.

While pasta and asparagus are cooking, combine olive oil, lemon peel, tarragon, and goat cheese (crumbled) in a large bowl.

 Add hot pasta and asparagus to the bowl and a few splashes of the hot pasta water.  Stir well to combine, adding more pasta if needed.  Season generously with salt and pepper and lemon juice if desired (I squeezed in the juice from a quarter of the lemon).

It should look like this:

(OK, so I can't figure out how to get someone else's image on my page so.... If you want to know what it was supposed to look like, click here.)

But mine looked like this:

Verdict:
Well.  First of all, I clearly had a problem with the melting of the cheese.  Apparently Asiago Goat Cheese does not melt as easily as plain old goat cheese.  Or at all.  I was a little panicked because essentially I had cheese, vegetables, and noodles with no sauce.  Yum?  No.  Since we had to eat, and we had to eat this, I improvised and added a little garlic salt, a little basil, a little more olive oil, a little more basil....

I also cooked up a few mushrooms for myself and added them to my bowl separately.  If you like mushrooms and decide to try this recipe, I recommend!

The slightly modified version of the dish was tasty.  Not what I had intended but that happens.  Would I try it again?  Possibly.  But there are other versions of similar pastas that I've made recently that I like better (Lemon Caper Pasta and Chicken and Asparagus Pasta for example), and I'd definitely wait until I had actual goat cheese for a re-do.

On the plus side, this can be made very quickly (you know, if you don't have a stove that takes 45 minutes to boil water) and uses very few pots and pans.  Cooking the veggies in the same pot as the pasta?  Pure genius.  And it's versatile.  Other veggies.  Mushrooms.  Chicken.  Endless possibilities.

Better luck to you if you give this a go!