Food Friday: Asparagus

Are you all set for spring? The snow has melted, the flowers are blooming and the sun is rising earlier every morning. Birds are singing. Have you started exfoliating? Are you eager to put the sweaters back in the closet? It’s finally April and we are springing with joy for asparagus season!

We have been eating asparagus for ages. 20,000 year-old wild asparagus seeds have been found at archeological digs in Egypt. There is an image of asparagus in an Egyptian frieze that was painted before 3000 BC. Queen Nefertiti decreed asparagus to be the food of the Gods. In the first century AD Emperor Augustus quipped, “Velocius quam asparagi conquantur,” which every clever Latin wag knows means, “As quick as cooking asparagus”. A recipe for cooking asparagus even appears in the oldest known cookbook: Apicius’s Third-century AD De re coquinaria, Book III.

The asparagus-loving emperors Julius Caesar and Augustus kept an “Asparagus Fleet” for importing their beloved vegetable from the far edges of their vast empire. Samuel Johnson, the great British diarist, made a note of having bought some at a market in 1677, though he called it “sparrow grass”, a more colloquial term than “asparagus”.

Asparagus, (or asparagi) named by the Romans, means “the first sprig or sprout of every plant, especially when it be tender”. There are four popular types consumed here in the twenty-first century: green, white, purple and wild. Green is what we usually find at the grocery store or farm stand. The new asparagus crops will be coming to market soon.

Here is an asparagus-centric menu from the International Food and Wine Society’s Celebration of Asparagus Dinner held in England in 2010:
Asparagus mousse & char-grilled asparagus
With air-dried ham, toasted pine nuts, spring onion rings & 10 year old balsamic dressing.
Muscat Réserve, Trimbach 2008
Asparagus & watercress soup
Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Lemon-scented salmon fillet
With Jersey Royal new potatoes, roasted asparagus, sweet carrots & sorrel Hollandaise
Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc 2007
Rhubarb & apple crumble
With vanilla pod ice cream
Clos L’Abeilly, Sauternes 2007
Freshly brewed tea or coffee with Florentines

“The mousse was lively and persistent, the wine light gold in colour and refreshingly dry with a good length.”

https://www.iwfs.org/assets/upload/regions/europe-africa/Food_and_Wine/Food__Wine_June_2010_1.pdf

But we are wasting time inside here at the computer. It is spring, and time to enjoy the great outdoors and the bounty of asparagus that is rolling our way. Carpe asparagi! Seize your lively and persistent asparagus by the lapels, and cook it with abandon! I have blown on before about our favorite way, which is to roast it on a cookie sheet under the broiler, with a scattering of salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. We also like to roll it up in aluminum foil and toss it on the grill for a few minutes. You can celebrate Friday Night Pizza and toss a handful on the pizza just as it goes in the oven. Or stick a few tender shoots on a piece of baguette with a schmeer of goat cheese. Don’t waste a minute, or a morsel.

1 pound penne or other short pasta

1 pound slender asparagus spears, trimmed, cut into one-inch pieces

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon melted butter

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

1 5-oz log soft fresh goat cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange asparagus spears in a single layer on a baking

sheet. Combine olive oil and butter and pour over asparagus. Season liberally with salt and

pepper and toss to combine. Roast, tossing as needed, for 15 minutes or until spears are

browned and tender.

2. Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, stirring

occasionally.

3. While pasta is cooking, in a large bowl, combine lemon peel and goat cheese. Stir until

smooth.

4. Drain pasta, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid. Add hot pasta, asparagus, and 1/4 cup

reserved cooking liquid to bowl with cheese mixture. Toss to coat, adding more reserved

liquid as needed to make the sauce creamy. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper.
4 minutes (cooking time, add some more for prep)

https://www.diningchicago.com/blog/2010/04/21/eat-this-asparagus-the-vegetable-of-kings/

15 minutes for Julia Child’s classic hollandaise sauce:
https://www.food.com/recipe/julia-childs-hollandaise-sauce-251332

20 minutes:
Food52 has a genius of an idea, that they call: Alice B. Toklas’ Asparagus in Salt & Pepper Whipped Cream
https://food52.com/recipes/34736-alice-b-toklas-asparagus-in-salt-pepper-whipped-cream

“… asparagus, tinged with ultramarine and rosy pink which ran from their heads, finely stippled in mauve and azure, through a series of imperceptible changes to their white feet, still stained a little by the soil of their garden-bed: a rainbow-loveliness that was not of this world.”
-Marcel Proust