Kitchen Pen Pals: Creamy white wine, dill and asparagus pasta

Shucks, I'm proud of Lauren's second attempt at cooking a challenging new dish. See her work of wonder here: http://glossaryzine.blogspot.com/2011/09/kitchen-pen-pals-creamy-white-wine-and.html

recipe and method is as follows:

500ml fresh cream

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 small onion - finely chopped

1 bunch fresh green asparagus

black pepper

handful of fresh chives

handful of fresh dill

trim ends off asparagus and cut into 2 cm lengths

place asparagus into boiling water and cook for 1 minute until bright green and still a little crunchy 

(this is known as blanching)

remove from hot water and place in a bowl of ice cold water.

(this halts the cooking process and allows the stalks to remain bright green and crunchy)

drain and set aside. they should look like this:

gently fry the onion in a small saucepan until it is soft and golden in colour. add the white wine and reduce until you have 2 teaspoons of liquid left. 

('to reduce' means to boil until the volume of liquid has lessened)

(when cooking with alcohol, it is necessary to reduce the liquid as that allows it to cook off the alcohol and get left with the yummy flavours it imparts)

place cream in another saucepan and boil until reduced by half

(beware with boiling cream as it can split)

in the meantime, cook 250g of pasta according to packet instructions

when the cream has reduced by half, add the onion and wine mix. add into this your asparagus bits and season to taste with salt and black pepper. chop your fresh herbs and chuck into the mix.

it should look summin like this:

if you are a fan of the flesh, you can always add some fried or steamed chicken strips, bacon bits, grilled prawns or tuna into this.