Pennette With Asparagus

Preparation:

Preparation: Boil the asparagus in abundant salted water and separate the tips and the soft part from the rest. Keep the cooking water. Sauté the finely sliced onion in the butter. Add the soft part of the asparagus, without the tips, finely chopped. Cook slowly adding from time to time a little of the cooking water that you have saved and pounding with a wooden spatula until you obtain a homogeneous puree; then add the asparagus tips kept aside and the liquid cream. Bring back to the boil. In the meantime you will have boiled the pasta in the same cooking water as the asparagus; season it by sprinkling with a little freshly ground pepper.