Wild Mushroom Agnolotti with Asparagus, Sweet Spring Onions, and Speck

"You got a box in the mail that says, 'Keep Refrigerated.' Should I open it?"

This is the message I got from my roommate the other day. I had completely forgotten about the Tastemaker Program, where I am supposed to review new products they send me, so of course I had a lot of fun thinking about what the hell was in the "Keep Refrigerated" box. It was a huge receptacle, mind you. Like, big enough to contain a reasonably sized living creature. Imagine my disappointment when it was just pasta.

It turned out to be a new product from Buitoni called Buitoni Riserva, which apparently contains 100% natural ingredients. Right. I have an issue with products that advertise this, like fast food shacks and their new chicken sandwiches, "now with 100% natural chicken." Uh, so what was in the other stuff?


Anyway, the specific product was Wild Mushroom Agnolotti, and I'll tell you what, those little bastards were actually really tasty. The filling was shockingly ample, flavorful, and identifiable. I even plucked a large piece of mushroom out of one of them. This is both impressive and surprising to me. Nice job, Buitoni. Must be all the natural ingredients in there...

My preparation goal was to showcase the pasta, so rather than drown it in sauce, I decided to pair it with some complimentary fresh springy flavors. I picked up some nice looking sweet spring onions and a bunch of asparagus at the farmers market and stopped at Pastaworks (another fab local market with a killer meat case) for some speck.

Speck is another product from the pig, or as I like to call it, the culinary wonder animal. It comes from Tyrol, which is an Italian region near the Austrian border (hence the German-sounding name). Think prosciutto, only smoked and laced with a hint of juniper berry. I learned about speck from watching the great classic Italian chef, Lydia Bastianich. I like to say it like her: "schpeck!"

First, I sliced up some of the speck and sautéed it until almost crispy. Next, I grilled the asparagus and onions to give them extra flavor, then chopped them up and sauteed them in the pan with the speck drippings. The agnolotti only took about 3 minutes to cook (they were fresh...did I mention that?), so I boiled them at the end and then just before serving, I added them to the pan with a splash of their cooking water. They were thick and reminded me of pierogies, so I felt like giving them a little char rather then serving them all slimy and chewy-like. I tossed the saute with the speck, some good olive oil, and chopped fresh rosemary right before serving. Topped with shaved Parmigiano and served with a simple green salad with lemon vinaigrette.


The salty, smokiness of the speck worked well with the creamy, earthiness of the 'shroom filling, and the grilled veg added an appropriate texture contrast, along with some freshness and a hint of grill char. Success.

Oh, I also grabbed a rosemary focaccia at the market. Ripping off chewy, fragrant hunks of that to sop up any lemon vinaigrette or rogue bits of speck was quite satisfying. Preferably serve this outside on a brilliantly sunny day with some classic Italian trattoria-style music and say, "tutti a tavola a mangiare!" The vitamin D and Italian eating commands really add to the experience.