Spring

Bright, fresh dishes that celebrate spring’s first bounty—think tender asparagus and peas, herb-splashed salads, light pastas and citrusy desserts. These recipes favor vibrant flavors, quick preparations and outdoor-friendly meals perfect for picnics, brunches and lazy alfresco evenings.

Asparagus and Marinated Artichoke Galette

By Rebecca Firkser

This simple galette calls for a store-bought puff pastry crust and jarred marinated artichokes, so you can focus on the tangy-creamy filling.

Skillet Gnocchi With Miso Butter and Asparagus

By Ali Slagle

This skillet gnocchi recipe has a spring in its step: It takes just 10 minutes to cook and is loaded with sweet springtime asparagus and baby greens. But that doesn’t mean the flavor is fleeting: The combination of miso, butter and vinegar forms a silky, rich sauce that glosses the seared gnocchi and vegetables and anything else you wish to add. Perhaps that’s the crunch of sliced radishes or toasted pistachios, or the crispness of a fried egg or seared fish.

15 min

Spring Minestrone With Kale and Pasta

By Kay Chun

This one-pot springtime minestrone combines asparagus, peas and kale with a healthy dose of fresh ginger. The ginger is optional, but it energizes the broth. This recipe is fairly flexible overall: You can swap green vegetables according to taste, use vegetable or chicken stock and toss in any type of short pasta. The pesto and Parmesan swirled in at the end provide brightness and richness, but you could also finish the soup with tapenade, sour cream, ricotta or even a splash of your favorite hot sauce.

20 min

Craig Claiborne's Pasta con Asparagi

By null

A mashup of all the best pasta sauces—tomato, asparagus, and carbonara—with surprisingly harmonious results. Adapted slightly from The New New York Times Cookbook (Crown, 1979)

Avgolemono Rice

By Gabrielle Hamilton

This avgolemono rice uses lamb stock because we love its connection to the roast leg of lamb at Easter, but you can happily use chicken stock at any time of year. The rice is cooked “pasta style,” in plenty of boiling salted water and drained when done, which is how we cook rice pretty much all the time now, dodging the sometimes mushy, sometimes waterlogged, sometimes al dente results of the usual cooking method. The egg-lemon sauce is tart and creamy at the same time, a unique richness without any cream or butter, that is killer almost anywhere it lands, from warm asparagus, to gently roasted salmon, to cold poached chicken, to steamed artichokes, even to orzo pasta.

30 min

Pasta With Green Pea Sauce & Lots of Pecorino

By null

My eternal love for dried pasta will never dwindle, but my relationship with this pantry staple has changed over these past few weeks. As I’ve relied on pasta more and more during this pandemic, I’ve needed to dig deep into my cooking creativity to avoid boredom. My solution: Create pasta sauces that feature puréed vegetables—the results are silky, creamy, and deeply flavorful. Maybe you’ve already tried this with cauliflower, broccoli, or beets. Really, the options are endless when it comes to veggie sauces. A recent experiment with puréed fava beans yielded a sauce that tasted earthy and delicate, with small hints of lemon, mint, and roasted garlic. Of course, fresh favas can be tricky to track down. If you can get a hold of some, I highly recommend swapping them into this recipe (instead of 2 cups of blanched peas, just use 2 cups shucked fava beans). After favas, the next best thing might already be in your freezer: frozen peas. Reserving some of the pasta cooking water is all that’s needed to transform pea purée into a sauce that beautifully clings to the pasta. Finely grated Pecorino Romano will add additional creaminess and umami, but you could easily omit the cheese and serve a vegan pasta that tastes nearly as rich as any Alfredo sauce. If you don’t have peas, try making a purée out of sautéed fennel or even marinated artichoke hearts. And if you don’t have leeks, you can swap in anything from onions to shallots to scallions. This is a recipe that’s meant to be versatile—especially now, when grocery shopping is more difficult than it used to be. Use the recipe as a guideline rather than a contract, and if you end up making some delicious adjustments, leave a comment below and please tell us all about it.