Creamy Asparagus Pasta

Updated March 12, 2025

Creamy Asparagus Pasta
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
30 minutes
Rating
4(2,104)
Comments
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In this quick pasta dinner, umami-rich seaweed stars twice: first, in the form of dasima (dried kelp), which seasons the pasta water and sauce with seaside savor; second, as gim (roasted seaweed), which lends deep nuttiness and some salty crunch, too. The pasta finishes cooking in a blush of heavy cream and a splash of the dasima broth, transforming into a dreamy emulsion balanced by rice vinegar. In this recipe’s final moments, a rich glug of sesame oil glosses the chewy rigatoni and echoes the toasted flavor of the gim, which sings.

Featured in: Umami Is Often a Flavor Bomb. In This Creamy Pasta, It’s a Balm.

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • 20grams gim, often labeled as roasted seaweed
  • 2(4-inch) squares dasima or kombu (dried kelp)
  • 1tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1pound rigatoni
  • cups heavy cream
  • 1small red onion, halved and thinly sliced
  • 2large garlic cloves, finely grated
  • 1teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
  • 1teaspoon rice vinegar
  • ½pound asparagus, thinly sliced at an angle
  • 1tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • Flaky sea salt, for serving
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

797 calories; 39 grams fat; 22 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 11 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 93 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 21 grams protein; 673 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Fold the gim in half and, with very sharp kitchen shears or a chef’s knife, slice into thin strips. Set aside for serving.

  2. Step 2

    In a large pot, combine 1 dasima square with 8 cups cold tap water. Bring the water to a boil and season with the kosher salt. Tumble in the pasta and cook for half the time the package tells you is al dente. Reserve 1 cup of the pasta water. Drain the pasta, then add it back to the pot. (Discard the dasima.)

  3. Step 3

    Add the remaining dasima square, cream, red onion, garlic, black pepper and reserved pasta water to the pasta. Bring to a boil over high heat, then immediately reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Stirring occasionally, cook the pasta until the onion-infused cream has thickened significantly, thinly coating the noodles, 4 to 5 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Turn off the heat. Add the vinegar and asparagus, and stir to combine for 1 minute. The residual heat from the pasta will gently cook the asparagus to tender-crisp. Stir in the sesame oil and season with more black pepper, if desired. Divide the pasta among serving dishes, discarding the dasima, and shower with the reserved gim and sprinkle with flaky sea salt. Serve immediately, before the gim wilts and turns soggy.

Ratings

4 out of 5
2,104 user ratings
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Comments

A few notes on seaweed to make it easier to find. Roasted gim (Korean name) and nori (Japanese name) are the same, but nori is generally easier to find in supermarkets. Approximately 95% of seaweed eaten in the US is imported from Asia (predominately China), but there is very good Kombu that is grown in Maine that is found in supermarkets and online - Ocean's Balance and Maine Coast Sea Vegetables are a couple of companies that harvest different seaweeds from the Gulf of Maine.

I would suggest subbing almond milk, cashew cream or full fat coconut milk or cream for the dairy cream.

You can buy already perfectly thinly sliced seaweed for topping in Asian grocery stores. Look for "kizami nori." Much cleaner and faster, and for me, worth it to have lots on hand. I toss it on a lot of wafu pasta.

Followed the recipe closely but then took other commenters' advice and added some prawns and a heaping tablespoon of gochujong at the end. Plated it with some flying fish roe I happened to have. It was amazing.

I loved this! Turned out amazing. My family said it reminded them of Dduk guk. I followed the recipe with small modifications. I had really thick pasta tubes so I boiled them just 3 minutes shy of the al dente timing on the box. I sautéed shallots and garlic a few minutes before adding cream. I used one cup which was maybe too much but certainly enough. I made up the volume with more pasta water. I also had some turkey defrosted already added some turkey meatballs at the end which worked well

Blah. Far too much cream for such little flavor.

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