Everday whole-wheat pasta is brought to life with a hint of spring Asparagus and gets a protein boost from the rich egg flavor of sauce gribiche.

Sauce gribiche is a type of french mayonnaise that is made by first hard-boiling eggs and separating the yolks from the whites. The yolks are then passed through a tamis or a fine-mesh strainer. Yolks are combined with a neutral oil such as, grapeseed, canola, or sunflower, and dijon mustard. The sauce is usually finished with pickles, capers, parsley, chervil, tarragon, and the whites that have been finely chopped. It is delicious and a good source of protein.

Here, we omit the pickles for big and meaty Greek Black Colossal olives, you will find them in your market olive bar or at Italian or Greek specialty stores.

Difficulty: Easy

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 3 Eggs
• 1 TBSP Dijon mustard
• 3/4c. Herbs, such as, Parsley, Chervil, and Tarragon, finely chopped
• 1/4c. Grapeseed Oil
• 1 Lemon, zested and juiced
  
• 2 TBSP Capers
• 1/2c. Greek Black Colossal Olives, cracked, pitted, and chopped
• 1 lb. Asparagus, trimmed, and sliced thin on the bias
• 1 lb. Whole Wheat Pasta of choice
• Sea Salt
• Freshly grated Ground Pepper
• Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese

Equipment

• Tamis or fine-mesh strainer
• Whisk
  

To hard-boil the eggs, place eggs in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring pot to a boil and allow to boil exactly 12 minutes. Remove eggs.

While preparing sauce, bring large pot of water to boil for blanching the asparagus and cooking the pasta. You can use the same pot of water for both. Make sure you salt the water well.

Peel the eggs. Carefully, cut around the egg removing the white from the yolk, reserving both. Push the yolks through a tamis or a fine-mesh strainer into a small mixing bowl. Finely chop the egg whites. Add the mustard and lemon juice. Whisk in the oil into the yolks slowly to emulsify. Fold in the herbs, capers, lemon zest, olives, and whites. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Blanch asparagus in rapidly-boiling water for about 30-45 seconds. Using a spider, remove from the pot and immediatly shock asparagus in a bowl of ice water. Once cooled down, drain and set aside in a large mixing bowl.

Cook pasta in the same pot of boiling water. Drain and toss into the bowl with the asparagus, adding the sauce gribiche while the pasta is still warm. Re-season if necessary. Garnish with parmesan cheese and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive-oil. Enjoy!

-kw