Oh April in Indiana how I love thee. Hot to cold in a single weather front. It is chilly here today and everybody yelled, "pot roast". Maybe the last before the coming dog day afternoons. I have no potatoes, so, noodles and the newest batch of garden asparagus and we have a great side. I think this is very much an Eastern European influenced dish. The noodles are thick. I left them in ribbons but you could easily cut them into diamonds too. The hardest part of this dish is making the noodles and you could buy them if you have a place to get good noodles. Here if you don't make them they come in a box. This is the standard noodle recipe that most use around here for chicken and noodles. We butcher a pig once a year and we use the jowl for home cured guanciale it just has a little more fat typically than pancetta so feel free to use pancetta or bacon.

Serves 4 to 6

For the noodles

2 cups all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons ice water

Place the flour and salt in a mixing bowl. In another bowl beat the eggs.
Make a well in the middle of the flour. Add the eggs and with you fingers start to swirl the four into the egg.
Once you have the mixture semi-together if it seems to dry add water by sprinkling a few drops at a time over the dough. Need the dough for 5-8 minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes but no more than two hours.
The thing about this dough is it is going to rest for thirty minutes at least so it will hydrate but you definitely don't want the dough to be dry. You can always add flour if the dough is to wet after the dough rests.
Dust a work surface with flour. Divide the dough into four equal pieces. Remove once piece and cover the remainder.
Smash the dough into the flour. Flip and flatten the other side with you hand. Now start rolling the dough with a pin. Turn the dough with each roll until you have about a 1/16 of an inch thick dough.
If the dough is wet sprinkle some flour over it and then gently fold it letter style. Cut into half inch ribbons. Repeat with the remaining three pieces of dough.
I hang the noodles but you can leave them in a pile just make sure they don't all stick together. Dust them with flour if you need to.

To finish:

16 ounces asparagus, tough ends removed and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 ounces guanciale, cut into 1/4 inch cubes
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup fresh chives, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Fill a 8 quart pot half way with water. Add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and place over high heat. Add the guanciale.

Once the water comes to a boil add the noodles. Even though they are fresh they will need to cook 4 to 6 minutes or longer.

Test to see if they are tender by biting into one. If they are add the asparagus and stir once. Dump immediately into a colander.

Shake and dump into a bowl. Add the butter and chives and toss until the butter is melted. Add lots of pepper to taste and more salt if necessary. Serve immediately.