This Boursin asparagus pasta is easy to make yet super flavorful. The cheese sauce is made quickly in the blender while the pasta is cooking. It pairs perfect with grilled meats or even stands alone with a simple salad for a complete meal.
I love Boursin cheese. We always had it as kids growing up and as an adult who experiments in the kitchen I use it in a lot of my recipes. Boursin is a great way to sneak in some creaminess to potatoes, soups, and pasta. I have made a few versions of this asparagus pasta before but surprisingly never with Boursin cheese. The asparagus looked great at the store so I knew I had to experiment and make this Boursin asparagus pasta this weekend.
Time saving tips
For this recipe there is one thing that saves time. Since you need a pot of boiling water for the pasta there is no point in cooking the asparagus separately. I used to put the asparagus in with the pasta at the end but I would spend too much time trying to fish the asparagus out of the water.
So for this you want to first boil the asparagus. Let it cook for a few minutes and then remove with tongs. Now that pasta water is nice and green with some asparagus flavor the pasta gets added in. Then the pasta can soak up some of that good asparagus flavor as well.
This recipe is great for multi-tasking. Once the pasta starts cooking move on to make the sauce (which takes all of 2 minutes). Who says easy can’t be flavorful?
Simple yet flavorful sauce
The sauce for this pasta is so easy to make. You just need a blender or a Vitamix to puree everything. Once the asparagus is out of the water I cut the tips off and reserve them. Then the asparagus stems go into the blender with some lemon zest, broth, the Boursin cheese and a little pasta water. That’s it!
BE CAREFUL – your pasta water will have salt in it. Also so does the parmesan cheese. So I don’t season the sauce with salt until the very last minute and make sure I taste the pasta first. I do go pretty wild with the fresh cracked pepper though. I like the little bit of spiciness it gives the pasta. It reminds me a little of cacio e pepe because I add so much. But if a lot of pepper is not your thing just add what you like.
Here is another tip. Once you add the sauce to the pasta the pasta will start to absorb the sauce. I like to serve this immediately. However if for some reason you can’t that’s why we save the pasta water. You can thin the lemon asparagus pasta back out with more pasta water or even more broth.
So if you are looking for another Boursin cheese recipe and love veggies be sure to try this Boursin asparagus pasta. If you are like me it will become a go to when you are in a hurry. Or if you just want a tasty new dish. And remember, if you try this Boursin asparagus pasta be sure to rate it and leave a comment below and let me know how you like it. Or tag me on Instagram!
Boursin Asparagus Pasta
- Total Time: 15M
Description
This Boursin asparagus pasta is easy to make yet super flavorful. The cheese sauce is made quickly in the blender while the pasta is cooking. It pairs perfect with grilled meats or even stands alone with a simple salad for a complete meal.
Ingredients
- 2 bunches of asparagus, tough ends trimmed (you will be blending this though so you don’t need to cut off as much as if you were making to eat) – 1 to 1.5 lbs of asparagus
- zest of 2 lemons
- 1 package Boursin Cheese (5.3 oz, I use the garlic and find herbs flavor)
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 1 lb pasta (penne, fusilli, vesuvio or shells all work good here)
- Fresh chives, minced
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Be sure to salt the water.
- Place in your asparagus spears, boil for 3 minutes, remove with tongs. DO NOT DRAIN THE WATER.
- Add pasta to the green asparagus water. Cook your pasta according to instructions.
- While pasta is cooking start your pasta sauce. First, remove the tips of asparagus and reserve the spears.
- In a blender place the stalks of the asparagus, half of the lemon zest, salt and pepper, the Boursin and parmesan cheeses and 1 cup of the pasta water (just scoop out a cup while the pasta is cooking). Blend until smooth.
- Save 1 cup of the pasta water before draining the pasta
- Add the sauce and pasta back to the pot. If the sauce is too thick thin out with a few splashes at a time of the reserved pasta water. Additionally you could use chicken or veggie broth as well. Remember to start with just a little, you can always add more but can’t remove it!
- Add asparagus spears, remaining lemon zest and season with pepper. I like mine with a lot of fresh cracked pepper. Taste your pasta. Add salt if necessary (there will be salt from the pasta water as well as the cheese).
- Top with fresh chives and maybe a little more parmesan and serve immediately. If you wait the pasta will soak up some of the sauce so you can thin out again by using more pasta water or even more chicken broth. Additionally the sauce will thicken up if saving for left overs so it may need to be thinned out the next day.
Notes
For a vegan version of this, Boursin now makes a dairy free spread you could swap out. Either use vegan parmesan or nutritional yeast in place of the parmesan cheese.
- Prep Time: 2M
- Cook Time: 13M
- Category: pasta
Keywords: pasta, vegetarian, Boursin, Boursin cheese, asparagus, easy
