Pasta Primavera (Spring Vegetables, Pine Nuts and Creme Fraiche)
Fresh egg pasta with blanched fava beans, peas, asparagus, snap peas and broccolini, tossed with butter, garlic-scented pine nuts, creme fraiche, lemon, basil, parsley and Parmigiano: a lighter, greener take on Le Cirque's famous 1970s dish.
Pasta primavera, "spring pasta," is an Italian-American dish from the 1970s, and its birth story starts in Canada. Wikipedia says that in 1975 the New York restaurateur Sirio Maccioni flew to the Nova Scotia summer home of an Italian baron, Carlo Amato, where the guests grew tired of game and fish and Maccioni mixed butter, cream and cheese with vegetables and pasta. CBC News told the same story in 2003 from Yarmouth County, quoting Maccioni: "So I said let me do something with vegetables". Back at Le Cirque it ran as an unlisted special, and a 1977 New York Times article by Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey, which called it "by far, the most talked-about dish in Manhattan," made it famous.
The credit is contested. Wikipedia records that Maccioni also said his wife Egidiana threw it together; that the amateur cook Edward Giobbi says he showed a similar dish to Maccioni and Le Cirque's chef Jean Vergnes; and that the chef Franco Brigandi says he invented it at Il Gatto Pardo. Maccioni even said Le Cirque's French chefs refused to serve pasta, so it was cooked in a hallway. J. Kenji López-Alt read the original recipe and did not love it; his Serious Eats version, made here, keeps the pine nuts, drops the tomatoes and mushrooms, and swaps heavy cream for creme fraiche so the vegetables stay bright.
Why it works the kitchen science
Blanch and shock
A minute in boiling water and a plunge into ice water sets the green color and keeps the vegetables crisp; López-Alt found it tasted fresher than sauteing, and fresh water for the pasta keeps it from turning dull.
Creme fraiche, not cream
Its tang, with lemon, coats the pasta like cream but brightens the vegetables instead of muffling them.
Step by step
- Step 1
Shuck the favas and peas, keeping them separate. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and set up a bowl of ice water. Blanch the favas, peas, asparagus, snap peas and broccolini one at a time, 1 minute each, moving each to the ice bath, then drying it on paper towels. Slip the skin off each fava bean.
- Step 2
Empty the pot, refill it with fresh water, salt it well and bring it back to a boil over high heat.
- Step 3
Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet, warm the butter, oil, garlic and pine nuts over low heat until gently sizzling, then cook, swirling constantly, 4 to 6 minutes, until the pine nuts just start to brown; do not let the butter brown. Discard the garlic, add the vegetables, toss and take the pan off the heat.
- Step 4
Cook the fresh pasta until just shy of al dente, about 1 minute (dried pasta: 1 to 2 minutes less than the package says). Drain, keeping 1 cup of the water.
- Step 5
Add the pasta to the vegetables with the creme fraiche, lemon zest and juice, basil and parsley. Set over high heat and toss constantly, 1 to 2 minutes, adding splashes of pasta water, until the sauce is creamy and leaves a trail when you drag a spoon across the pan.
- Step 6
Off the heat, stir in a generous grating of Parmigiano and season with salt and pepper. Serve right away with a drizzle of olive oil, more black pepper and more Parmigiano.
Pasta Primavera (Spring Vegetables, Pine Nuts and Creme Fraiche)
Serves 4 · 4 plates · 45 min total
Vegetables
- 12 oz fava beans in their pods (or 4 oz shucked)
- 12 oz English peas in their pods (or 4 oz shucked)
- Kosher salt
- 8 oz asparagus, woody ends removed, cut on a sharp bias into 1-inch pieces
- 6 oz snap peas, strings removed, cut on a bias into 1/2-inch slices
- 6 oz broccolini, woody ends removed, cut on a bias into 1-inch pieces
Sauce
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for serving
- 2 whole garlic cloves, lightly smashed
- 3 oz pine nuts
- 6 oz creme fraiche
- 2 tsp finely grated lemon zest and 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 oz fresh basil leaves, minced (about 1/2 cup packed)
- 1/2 oz fresh parsley leaves, minced (about 1/2 cup packed)
- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and black pepper, to taste
Pasta
- 1 lb fresh egg pasta, such as fettuccine, penne or gemelli (or 12 oz dried)
Method
- Shuck the favas and peas, keeping them separate. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and set up a bowl of ice water. Blanch the favas, peas, asparagus, snap peas and broccolini one at a time, 1 minute each, moving each to the ice bath, then drying it on paper towels. Slip the skin off each fava bean.
- Empty the pot, refill it with fresh water, salt it well and bring it back to a boil over high heat.
- Meanwhile, in a 12-inch skillet, warm the butter, oil, garlic and pine nuts over low heat until gently sizzling, then cook, swirling constantly, 4 to 6 minutes, until the pine nuts just start to brown; do not let the butter brown. Discard the garlic, add the vegetables, toss and take the pan off the heat.
- Cook the fresh pasta until just shy of al dente, about 1 minute (dried pasta: 1 to 2 minutes less than the package says). Drain, keeping 1 cup of the water.
- Add the pasta to the vegetables with the creme fraiche, lemon zest and juice, basil and parsley. Set over high heat and toss constantly, 1 to 2 minutes, adding splashes of pasta water, until the sauce is creamy and leaves a trail when you drag a spoon across the pan.
- Off the heat, stir in a generous grating of Parmigiano and season with salt and pepper. Serve right away with a drizzle of olive oil, more black pepper and more Parmigiano.
Adapted from J. Kenji López-Alt, "Pasta Primavera (Pasta With Spring Vegetables)," Serious Eats (published May 22, 2017, updated May 11, 2026), serves 4. We follow it as written: 4 oz each shucked favas and peas, 8 oz asparagus, 6 oz snap peas and broccolini (listed as "8 ounces (170g)"; we use 170 g, about 6 oz) blanched 1 minute each and shocked; 4 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp oil, 2 smashed garlic cloves and 3 oz pine nuts warmed until the nuts start to brown; 1 lb fresh egg pasta cooked about 1 minute; 6 oz creme fraiche, lemon zest and juice, basil and parsley; Parmigiano off the heat. The recipe card says 6 servings and its nutrition panel says 4; we use 4. The pine nut toasting time is ours. This is a modern version, not Le Cirque's own recipe, which we could not read. Serious Eats. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Swap in what is in season; López-Alt suggests fiddleheads, fresh chickpeas or snow peas.
- Smashed whole garlic gives a gentle garlic flavor without the bite of minced.
- Frozen peas work when fresh are not in season.
- If you make the long-noodle classic, López-Alt suggests making your own fettuccine.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Le Cirque invented pasta primavera. Disputed: Maccioni's Nova Scotia story (Wikipedia; CBC); Edward Giobbi and Franco Brigandi also claim it (Wikipedia).
- It was born in Nova Scotia in 1975. Disputed: Maccioni's account to CBC; Maccioni also credited his wife (Wikipedia).
- Primavera means a cream sauce. Disputed: Wikipedia defines it with a cream sauce; López-Alt uses creme fraiche and says heavy cream smothered the vegetables.
- Primavera has tomatoes and carrots. Folklore as a rule: López-Alt says the original had tomatoes and mushrooms and chain versions add carrots and zucchini; his has neither.
- The New York Times made it famous in 1977. Documented by Wikipedia (Claiborne and Franey).
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