Despite what I said the other day about sticking an egg on something and calling it breakfast, I’m not going to call this ‘breakfast spaghetti’ (although that does sound pretty amazing, and will definitely be added to my running list of recipes to make…). Nope, today I’m sticking with plain old ‘asparagus spaghetti with a fried egg’. Because sometimes, simple things are the best.

This is a super easy, no-frills recipe that comes together in about twenty minutes, but it’s just as satisfying as something that takes hours to prepare. Just whip up a quick batch of homemade basil and spinach pesto, add it to your spaghetti along with some garlicky asparagus, and serve it topped with an egg (a poached egg would work great too, if you’re not a fan of fried!).

Egg and pasta might seem like an odd combination, but when you break that gooey yolk and it oozes through the spaghetti, you’ll understand. It makes the whole thing taste ridiculously luxurious, even though it probably cost less to make than a supermarket sandwich.

I used to be seriously against runny yolks, but now I can’t quite remember why. Just loooook!

Pesto is such a good way of using up any limp greens you may have lingering in the back of the fridge (I know it’s not just me). I used up a massive handful of spinach in this pesto (you can just keep stuffing it into your food processor and it seems to disappear into thin air), but you can use other sorts of leafy greens too. It’s definitely preferable to eating spinach every day for a week in an attempt to use it all up!

Print Asparagus spaghetti with a fried egg Prep Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 15 mins Total Time: 20 mins Servings: 2 Ingredients 200 g spaghetti

1 tbsp butter

2 cloves garlic minced

150 g asparagus trimmed and cut into 1inch pieces

Salt

Black pepper

2 tbsp pine nuts

4 tbsp fresh basil

50 g fresh spinach

2 tbsp vegetarian parmesan-style cheese finely grated

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp cooking oil

2 eggs Instructions Boil the spaghetti until al dente, around 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a frying pan and add the asparagus. Cook over a fairly low heat for a few minutes, stirring regularly. Then add the garlic and cook for a little longer, until the asparagus is just tender but still has a bit of bite to it. Season with salt and black pepper.

While the asparagus is cooking, you can prepare the pesto. In a mini food processor, blitz together the pine nuts, basil, spinach and parmesan (depending on the size of the cup, you might need to add one handful of spinach at a time), and then add the olive oil. Blitz again, and adjust the consistency according to your preference (add a few extra nuts to thicken it up, or a dash more oil if you would like it to be thinner. In order to coat the pasta properly, it should be on the thin side).

When the pasta is ready, drain it and add the asparagus mixture and the pesto. Place over a very low heat, stirring constantly, to warm through the pesto. During this time, you can fry your eggs (I used the same frying pan as before to save on washing up).

When the pesto is hot, serve your spaghetti topped with the fried eggs. Author: Becca Heyes

If you love asparagus, check out this collection of asparagus recipes that Kiersten from Oh My Veggies put together for me while I was away!