Creamy Spring Pastina

Name: Creamy Spring Pastina
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: Pasta barley seeds 11.5 oz; Peas Approximately 1 1/4 cups 1.3 cups; Zucchini 7 oz; Spring onions 1; Stracciatella cheese 1.8 oz; Butter 4 ½ tbsp; Lemon juice 1.3 tbsp; Grana Padano PDO cheese 1.4 oz; Basil to taste

Difficulty: Easy
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Serving: 4
Note + 1.5 hours of chilling the butter in the fridge

PRESENTATION

Creamy Spring Pastina takes a dish most people associate with cold weather and quietly rewrites it for the season. Sweet peas and tender zucchini give it brightness, but the real work comes from a compound butter made with cipollotto — spring onion blended into butter, chilled until firm, then stirred in at the very end of cooking.

As it melts, it pulls the whole pot together into a dense, velvety cremina that coats every tiny piece of pasta without any cream in sight. Make the compound butter a day ahead and the rest moves quickly. The cipollotto flavor is mild and fresh rather than sharp, and as it melts into the hot pasta it creates a glossy, dense finish that makes a simple bowl feel considered — a small technique with an outsized result.

How to prepare Creamy Spring Pastina

To prepare the creamy spring pastina, chop the green part of the scallion and measure out about 20 g (about 0.7 oz; roughly 3 tbsp) 1, then place 60 g of softened butter, cut into pieces, in a bowl (about 4 tbsp, 2.1 oz) and add the chopped scallion greens 2, mix well to combine 3.

You should obtain the consistency of a workable but not melted cream 4, then lay 2 sheets of plastic wrap on your work surface and pour the butter-and-scallion mixture onto them 5, then roll it up into a tightly closed log 6 and freeze it in the freezer for about 1 hour to 1 hour and a half.

Slice the white part of the scallion 7, cut the green part of the zucchini 8 and cut into 0.5 centimetre cubes (about 0.2 inches — roughly 1/4 inch) 9.

Heat 5 g of butter in a small saucepan (about 1 tsp, 0.18 oz) 10, add the scallion 11, season with salt and cook over medium-low heat for 5 minutes.

At this point add the zucchini 13 and cook everything together for 7 to 8 minutes, then add the pasta 14 and the peas 15.

Continue by adding hot water 16 to bring everything to doneness, seasoning with salt only at the end; it will take about 7 minutes. At the end of cooking, take the scallion butter from the fridge and cut it into pieces 17. Finish the pastina with lemon juice 18.

Toss with grated cheese 19 and the scallion butter 20, stirring to season 21.

Serve the creamy spring pastina immediately 22 with little spoonfuls of burrata and fresh basil leaves 23 24.

Storage

We recommend consuming the creamy spring pastina immediately.

Tip

To make this preparation even more versatile, you can prepare a larger amount of scallion-infused butter and freeze it in slices, as it will prove to be a formidable ace up your sleeve for finishing a classic herb risotto or a seafood risotto, giving it a creaminess and a flavor boost in just a few seconds.

For this recipe you can use either fresh or frozen peas, bearing in mind that fresh peas require longer cooking times.

For the translation of some texts, artificial intelligence tools may have been used.

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