Pasta with Asparagus and Chive Blossoms

I call it "springtime in a bowl." Yes, I'm aware that I've alleged multiple times before that some food or another is quintessentially spring. But if anything, edible flowers are it!

The Wallingford Farmer's Market held its opening day of the season yesterday, and I spent a lovely hour or so poking around and taking pictures (photos to come!). For all of $7, I got a few big handfuls of sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes), a bunch of skinny asparagus, and a huge bunch of chives in bloom. I just couldn't resist these adorable lavendar poofs with a slightly oniony taste. Whooda thunk?

I decided to combine my market finds with a deliciously soft rosemary and garlic sheep's milk cheese from Black Sheep Creamery, picked up at the Seattle Cheese Festival this past weekend. I used a gluten-free pasta made of quinoa flour, mainly because that's all I had around. Cooked the pasta in a big pot of boiling salted water and added asparagus chunks about three minutes before I thought the pasta would be done. Drained them all together, and I was right--the pasta was cooked through and the asparagus was a bit al dente. Perfect.


Tossed the hot pasta with olive oil and the soft cheese to make a light alfredo-like sauce, and added a generous portion of chopped chives.

The last touch was the adorable poofy chive blossoms, both for garnish and for flavor!

And voila... springtime in a bowl!