Repeat a phrase often enough and it’s bound to lose something of its original meaning. Such is the case with pasta primavera, a dish that originated to celebrate and spotlight spring’s early glories, but that today has come to mean pretty much any pasta dish featuring pretty much any vegetable, regardless of seasonality. Of course, this hasn’t been helped by the fact that certain of the Italian restaurant chains have taken to offering the dish year-round, no doubt recognizing that diners view it as a healthy alternative to, say, its cream-laden cousin, fettuccine Alfredo. I’m all for healthier eating, but by making primavera available through all four seasons, the very qualities that made it so special originally—the simplicity of its ingredients, the clarity of its flavors—have largely been lost. Regardless of how you feel about carrots or peppers, they have no place in a true primavera, in part because they’re available year-round, and as such lack the sweet, delicate-quality the dish requires to live up to its full potential. So consider this my attempt to wrest what has become a pasta mainstay from the clutches of all those ordinary vegetables, thereby returning it to its proper place—as a seasonal menu item with an expiration date landing squarely on the final day of spring (click here to continue reading)
