We had our first asparagus of the year last night. It arrived in the farm box, as promised in last week’s farm box newsletter (the farmer keeps us updated on all manner of things happening at the farm and in the world of California agriculture, which really is part of the fun of the farm box). As much of it as we eat every spring, we hadn’t had it in so long that Ernest had forgotten all about it. I took great pleasure in watching him discover its clean grassy taste all over again. As the season wears on I’ll start making soups and custards and salads and such. But for now I’m keeping it even more simple: I heated the oven to 400, trimmed the asparagus, laid it in a gratin dish (although any old baking dish or even a sheet pan or large piece of foil would do), drizzled a bit of olive oil on top as well as sprinkled on some kosher salt, and roasted them for about 15 minutes. The high heat intensifies the flavors and, like all cooking, tenderizes the vegetable. Once out of the oven I grated a bit of meyer lemon zest over the top (although any old lemon zest or even a squirt of juice would be tasty). We ate them with our fingers while the gnocchi with ricotta and greens (made with a bunch of red chard and a bunch of golden beet greens) baked.
Speaking of which… a friend told me she thought that recipe needed some “melty cheese.” I thought she was nuts. Cheesier? I thought, why that would make it too cheesey. Then I made it with the regular supermarket brand part skin ricotta, which was all they carried at the little market I stopped at, instead of whole milk ricotta…. Oh my. Yes. If you make it with part skim it definitely needs a little something something to keep the cheesey part from baking into crumbly dry bits. Um, some cream? Kind of defeats the “part skim” aspect of things, doesn’t it? I’m thinking that instead of parmesan you would need to use something softer, less aged, more melty. Fontina or a young pecorino. As for me and my future with this dish (and Ernest luvs it as much as I do, so it’s sticking around because while my dashing husband does not luv it he happily tolerates it even though it comes dangerously close to his much hated “casserole” – I know, I know, but please don’t tell him that it is, in fact, a casserole), I’ll be making the extra effort to buy the whole milk ricotta.
p.s. Remember that creamy spicy tomato sauce from the other night? It ends up that if you let it cool down to room temperature it makes a delicious dip. Dee-li-cious. My dashing husband and I stood around dipping cauliflower florets into it and trying to figure out if it was weird or if you could actually just serve it as a dip. We decided you woudl never guess it wasn’t a dip. Go forth! Dip!
heather | 12-Mar-09 at 2:22 pm | Permalink
i cannot WAIT until the first asparagus at the farmer’s market!
cheers,
*heather*