I'm so excited to be partnering with Land O Lakes for the third year in a row, as a Kitchen Conversations panelist. And even more excited to share with you their annual Pin a Meal. Give a Meal. program. The goal is to pin this recipe or other Land O'Lakes recipes from here. Each pin means 10 meals will be donated to Feeding America®. Their goal is to donate 3.5 million meals this year!
Be sure to check out the other Kitchen Conversations panelists recipes and pin theirs as well!
- Make Ahead Cheesy Hash Brown Cups with Bacon and Chives from a farmgirl's dabbles
- Sugar Cookie Bars with Strawberry Glaze and Sugared Flowers from Bake at 350
- Spring Panzanella Salad from Two Peas and Their Pod
- Leek Gratin from Fifteen Spatulas
- White Chocolate Truffle Citrus “Chick” Cookies from A Spicy Perspective
- Chicken Broccolini with Mustard Cream Sauce from The Pioneer Woman
Last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Land O'Lakes headquarters and wrote about my experience. I learned that Land O'Lakes employees are passionate about what they do. I love working with them and am even more thrilled that they support Feeding America (helping to bring awareness to hunger in America and helping by donating meals). Please take one minute to pin this recipe on pinterest using the button below. If you don't have an account, you can sign up for a free account, it takes just a minute!
This year, Land O’Lakes is offering another fun way to support Pin A Meal. Give a Meal. — A live online cooking event with Ree, The Pioneer Woman, and Becky from the Land O’Lakes Test Kitchen. The event takes place on Wednesday, April 1 at 12pm, Eastern Time. Ree and Becky will be cooking their signature Feeding America® recipes live through an online video stream from Ree’s ranch and answering your spring cooking and baking questions.
The best part? All day on April 1, for each recipe pinned from the Land O’Lakes Pin A Meal. Give A Meal board Land O’Lakes will double their Feeding America® donation from 10 meals per pin to 20 meals per pin. That's amazing!
Participating in the event is simple!
- RSVP by clicking the link here: landolakes.com/livecookingevent. A reminder will be automatically added to your calendar and you’ll be sent a confirmation email recapping all the event details.
- At noon on April 1, return to the same link where you RSVP’d and tune in for the live cooking event.
- Share your questions for Ree and Becky on Twitter using #PinAMeal and they may answer them live during the event.
- All day on April 1, pin recipes included in the Land O’Lakes Pin A Meal. Give a Meal program to help double the amount of meal donations.
I’ll be participating along with my fellow Kitchen Conversation panelists! We hope you will join us!
For this recipe, I was coming up with a fun spring side dish…and who doesn't love pasta right? And brown butter? I'm totally obsessed. Seriously. With asparagus and green onions, this feels like spring! You can sub out any vegetables too. To make this a complete meal, serve this pasta with some grilled chicken.
The bacon is totally optional. Of course to make this dish vegetarian, just omit the bacon.
The first thing I do for this recipe is cook the bacon in the microwave and start a pot of salted water and bring it to a boil.
Prep the garlic, green onions and asparagus.
Melt one Land O Lakes® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt in a nonstick skillet. Once it melts, set your timer for 5 minutes. That's about the amount of time it takes to brown the butter.
Once you see brown particles of butter in your pan, you have brown butter! Turn the heat off and add garlic and mix. Cook for about 30 seconds (you don't want to burn the garlic!).
There's the garlic brown butter all done.
Add back 1 Tablespoon of brown butter to the pan and cook the asparagus for 2 minutes.
Add back the rest of the brown butter and add heavy cream. You need just a little bit for this recipe.
All ready to go into the pasta.
Mix really well. And serve with green onions and bacon.
It's such a simple side dish and tastes amazing! I can't wait to make this for my Bunko friends soon. I hope you'll try this recipe soon and take a moment to help us below…
Pin a Meal. Give a Meal.
Every hungry family has a story to share. You can help change how those stories turn out.
Help us reach our goal of donating 3.5 million meals to Feeding America. You can pin this Brown Butter Pasta recipe or select your own to contribute 10 meals to Feeding America. You can pin this recipe or other recipes from Land O’Lakes to contribute even more meals. To learn more visit, www.landolakes.com/Pinameal.
Don't forget to pin! You have until April 30, 2015. Help us reach the goal of 3.5 million meals.
Recipe
Brown Butter Pasta with Asparagus & Bacon Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 slices cooked bacon, chopped (optional)
- 12 ounces uncooked bowtie pasta
- 1 Land O Lakes® Butter with Olive Oil & Sea Salt , 1/4 cup
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 pound asparagus, washed, trimmed and cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 Tablespoon heavy cream
- 2 green onions, sliced
Instructions
- Cook bacon and chop up, if using.
- Bring a pot of water with plenty of salt to a boil. Cook pasta according to instructions on the package. Drain pasta and add back to pot.
- While the water is boiling, add butter to a nonstick skillet and cook on medium heat until browned, about 5 to 6 minutes. Once the butter is brown, working quickly, turn heat off and add garlic. Cook for 30 seconds. Remove butter and garlic and place in a clean bowl. Set aside.
- Add 1 Tablespoon browned butter back to the skillet and turn heat to medium. Add asparagus and cook for 2 minutes. Add heavy cream to pan along with remaining brown butter. Cook for 2 more minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Pour asparagus and butter mixture over pasta in large pot.
- Mix pasta together. Serve with green onions and bacon (optional).
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The Land O’Lakes Foundation will donate $1 to Feeding America® for every recipe pinned or repinned between March 2, 2015 and April 30, 2015. (Pin any Land O’Lakes recipe or submit any recipe pin at LandOLakes.com/pinameal). $1 helps provide 10 meals secured by Feeding America® on behalf of local member food banks. Land O’Lakes guarantees a minimum of 3.5 million meals (monetary equivalent of $350,000).
Disclosure: The Little Kitchen has partnered with Land O’Lakes for an exclusive endorsement of Land O Lakes® Butter for their Kitchen Conversation blogger program. This blog post is sponsored by Land O’Lakes.
Skyler Kitchen says
This is driving me crazy, how can something be easy and yumm altogether.
thanks for sharing.
Liz says
Looks delicious and so easy. Thank you and have a great Sunday!
Penelope says
How delicious does this look! Brown butter sounds so savory and I love asparagus with pasta. And a great cause too!
Nick (Macheesmo) says
Hey Julie,
This pasta dish looks awesome! When you are hanging with the Land O Lakes folks ask them if they think guys should participate in the “Kitchen Conversation”? As far as I can tell they think only women should cook… I’ve never seen them work with a male blogger.
It’s so sad because I love butter. Haha.
Liz Mays says
Julie, that looks beyond delicious. I am so happy they’re making the donations too. Pinned!
Alice @ Hip Foodie Mom says
Julie, love this pasta!!! and love what Land O’Lakes is doing even more!!!
Joanne says
Pasta with a brown butter sauce sounds like something I definitely need in my life!
Lori @ Foxes Love Lemons says
I was definitely going to pin this anyway, just because it is mouthwatering. But now that it’s for a good cause? Pinned it twice! Boom 🙂
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl says
Love that they are partnering with Feeding America!! Such an important cause. And I’m loving all the gorgeous asparagus in this girl!
Carolyn says
Brown butter makes me weak in the knees. And I am definitely pinning…what a great cause!
Karly says
This dish is perfect for Spring! Love the bacon and asparagus paired with browned butter…yum!
Pinned!
Rachel Cooks says
Well hello there, pasta perfection!
Amanda says
This is my kind of meal Super tasty and easy to make!
Susan Williams says
Such a great cause, Julie, and with such a delicious looking recipe, that is in season, I’m so happy to pin it, for my own selfish reasons AND for the good of others. 😀
Love you!
bridget {bake at 350} says
Um, brown butter….asparagus….bacon…pasta??? All of my favorites in one dish!
Maria says
A great pasta dish for spring!
allie@ThroughHerLookingGlass says
Always wondered about making brown butter….so simple! (Thank you.) And two of my favorites, asparagus and bacon. Yum!
Kebby says
You state that for every pin Land of Lakes will donate 10 meals but the fine print says that for every pin Land of Lakes will donate $1 for every pin and “$1 helps provide 10 meals”. Does this mean each meal costs 10 cents and therefore $1 provides 10 meals? Or does it mean that the $1 is contributed towards 10 meals that cost more than a $1 in total? I just don’t see how the $1 contributed by Land of Lakes equals 10 meals. Please explain. I am struggling to see how $1 can purchase 10 meals.
Julie Deily says
Hi Kebby,
First, I want to say thanks for taking the time to comment and ask this question. Also, thanks for your email this morning apologizing to me. I wanted to make sure you know that your comment was not deleted and it was in moderation as you a first time commenter on The Little Kitchen.
As far as your question, it’s a great question. I emailed the Land O’Lakes team and they worked with Feeding America to get you an answer.
The donation ratio is from Feeding America and is the same among all their partners and donations. You can see the $1 equals 10 meals on their website at via a donate link http://bit.ly/1Hc3W7R (look in the right sidebar — I shortened it because it’s a super long link that spans several rows). They use a simple methodology.
If you have more questions, I can email you a longer explanation with additional details.
Directly from Feeding America: Drawing on average annual data from the past five years (to offset any temporary gains or declines), we divide the food (less plain water* and non-food) that we receive from national donors by total expenses at the Feeding America national office. The result is the number of pounds of food we help secure on behalf of local food banks per dollar. We convert pounds per dollar into meal equivalents per dollar using a ratio of 1.2 pounds per meal.* (* USDA “What We Eat in America” 2009-2010. We have removed water from total pounds to align with the USDA’s practice of excluding water (plain water, like tap water, with no calories or enhancements).
I hope that helps explain it, Kebby!
Kebby says
Thanks for finding out the information. I guess they have to come up with some way of explaining how donations that purchase food in bulk is distributed into individual meals. Seems legit.
Linda | Brunch with Joy says
This pasta looks so classic and delicious! I love the combination of brown butter and bacon. Yummm!
Brenda @ a farmgirl's dabbles says
This looks simple and oh so good!!
Joanne @ Fifteen Spatulas says
Wow, that big bowl of bowtie pasta…looks amazing! Love the brown butter + asparagus + bacon combo!!