Lunch like you’re in Venice: Linguine with Asparagus & Prosecco

Cooking with prosecco always seems rather extravagant, but less so if you take it as an excuse to enjoy the rest of the bottle with your meal. You could, of course, make this using white wine or a splash of vermouth, but there is something about the delicacy of prosecco that works particularly well here. You can almost taste the bubbles in the sauce. If you can use fresh egg pasta, better still.

Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
400g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3-5cm lengths
100ml prosecco
a handful of flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
400g linguine
30g salted butter
30g Parmesan, grated
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add the onion and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring, over a low-medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until the onion becomes translucent. Add the asparagus and prosecco, then season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated and the asparagus is tender. If it is not quite done by the time the wine evaporates, add just enough water to cover the base of the pan and cook for a little longer. Stir in the parsley.

Meanwhile, cook the linguine in a large saucepan of generously salted boiling water until al dente. Just before you drain the pasta, scoop half a cup of the cooking water out of the pot and set to one side. Drain the pasta, toss it back into the saucepan and mix in the reserved cooking water, little by little, and the butter. Stir well, then add the asparagus mixture. Give everything one last good stir and top with the grated Parmesan.

Extracted from A Table in Venice: Recipes from My Home by Skye McAlpine (Bloomsbury, approx €30).