I've been waiting for you!
I really love asparagus, and it's one of the first veggies to arrive with Spring, so by May, I'm buzzing with anticipation. And by June, I can barely wait.
Thursday night I stopped by the Carrot Barn on the way home from work, and they had fresh, homegrown asparagus, picked that morning. I figured I could get a couple meals out of a bunch.
It was super sweet and delicious. BUT, three meals later, I was asparagused out, and still had a ton of it left, so I had no other choice but to force it upon my friends.
Picnic!
I don't think they minded.
The many days of asparagus:
Day #1: It's super fresh, so you don't have to do much with it. I sauteed it in butter and a sprinkle of dill in my cast iron skillet (which is my fave). Dill + asparagus = delicious.
Day #2: Asparagus and eggs are a tasty pair for breakfast. I also bought fresh biscuits at the Carrot Barn, so I made a muffin sandwich. Yum.
End of Day #2/ Day #3: So much left, and it's already starting to wilt. To use it up, I made an easy pasta dish adapted from Everyday Italian
by Giada De Laureniis (the one from the Food Network). It traveled excellently to our picnic!
Directions: Throw your chopped asparagus into the boiling water with the pasta for the last 2 minutes. When you drain it all, save 1/2 C. of the pasta water. In a pan, saute some garlic, and toss the pasta and asparagus in it, with the left over pasta water. Add salt, pepper, sliced prosciutto, and a cheese of your choice (I used smoked chedder, which melted into the pasta and was extra delicious).
Eat some asparagus! And do it outside, it's finally nice out. (Don't forget to pack the wine.)
