pasta with asparagus, mint pesto and poached egg

Despite carping on at great length yesterday about the asparagus in the supermarket coming from Chile rather than Albion's bejeweled shores, it doesn't stop me taking advantage of getting two bunches for the price of one. There's a great-looking  Angela Harnett recipe in the Guardian today, but it looks more starter-er than enough for dinner so we're fall back on a classic.

Strangely enough, despite all the years I've been making this I've never actually got round to doing the mint pesto until tonight, and do you know what? It's a total game changer: The zingy mint really cuts through the denseness of the pasta, whereas the shop bought basil-n-parmesan stuff is a bit too claggy. I buggered up the eggs though...

Wine Time
To be honest I'd stick with a herbaceous Kiwi sauv, particularly now we've thrown in the mint pesto plus the extra heft of the pasta needs cutting through in the same way as yesterday's salmon. This lark is easy eh?

sources
pasta with asparagus, pesto and poached egg - Delicious, May 2005, p110 - now the Parsley Book