Asparagus

Two days ago was the birthday of my Grandmother and she prepared for my family a delicious lunch using seasonal vegetables like the asparagus and green beans.  She prepared a wonderful first course of pappardelle with pesto, asparagus and prawn and a delicious second course of tender veal meat with spinach and green beans. This wonderful lunch remember me that asparagus are the vegetables of this season: spring!!!! Asparagus are vegetables typical of spring time, from March to May. They are one of my favorite vegetables that I like to use to prepare delicious Italian recipes.

The easiest recipe to prepare with asparagus is Milanese asparagus:

that is an Italian second course delicious and very fast to prepare, you will need only 20 minutes, some asparagus and eggs, and the result will be great. Asparagus are also tasty to eat simply boiled with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and Parmesan flakes on the top.

But asparagus are ideal ingredients also for the preparation of first course like lasagna with asparagus,

risotto with white asparagus or Fusilliwith asparagus and squaquerone cheese

and delicious appetizer like asparagus covered with speck or bacon. Asparagus grow in open field or in greenhouse especially in Lombardia, Piedmont, Liguria, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Toscana, Lazio and Campania. There are different types of asparagus, like the white asparagus of Bassano del Grappa in Veneto; the green asparagus of Altedo and the violet asparagus of Alberga. Asparagus are easy breakable vegetables, but I think they are easy to prepare. Usually they are sold in brunch and when you are buying them the most important thing to consider is to check the buds and the stalks: the buds should be hard, entire and straight, and the stalks should be soft and less woody. Asparagus need very short time of cooking: they should be cooked in brunch in a high pot; you should place the brunch of asparagus in vertical position in the high pot and add water without covering the buds of the asparagus that will cook with steam.

Otherwise if you use them in pieces you don’t need to boil them but you will cook them directly in the sauce you are going to prepare.   

Fusilli with Asparagus and Squaquerone

This Italian first course is prepared with asparagus and squaquerone, two traditional Italian food that I use here in order to prepare delicious pasta based first course. The preparation of this Italian recipe is easy: the asparagus are simply cooked with some onion, water and sprinkle with salt and black pepper. Then I divided them in two parts and I reduced one of them in cream, I put the two parts together and I added to them the squaquerone. Squaquerone is a traditional Italian cheese, from Emilia Romagna where it is usually use as the main Italian food of Piadina. It has a very soft consistency ans for this reason it can be mixture very well with other Italian ingredients.


INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
320 g of Fusilli
200 g of Asparagus
100 g of Ham steak cut in squared pieces
300 g Squaquerone (an Italian fresh cheese)
1 / 2 Onion
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Black pepper

PREPARATION TIME: 10 minutes

COOKING TIME: 20 minutes

WINE: Torgiano Chardonnay Doc (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for fusilli. Clean the asparagus removing the woody part of the stem and cut them in pieces. Preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan, chop the onion and place it in the pan, let it brown



and then add the pieces of asparagus. Let the asparagus sauté for some minutes,



sprinkle with salt and black pepper then add some water and cook the asparagus for about 10 -15 minutes.



When the asparagus are cooked remove from the pan a half of them and mix them with the help of a mixer in order to obtain a sort of cream. Add to the asparagus in the pan the ham steak,



then add the cream of the asparagus and mix all together.



Add the squaquerone cheese and mix.



When the pasta is cooked pour on it the sauce of asparagus and serve hot.
This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!

Lasagna with Asparagus

This Italian recipe is prepared with typical vegetables of the summer period: the asparagus. With asparagus and crescenza, that is a kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardia, you can prepare delicious summer lasagna. The preparation of this Italian recipe is quite simple: you should prepare a mixture of crumbled bread and walnuts, a mixture of milk, crescenza, Parmesan and béchamel, lasagna and the asparagus cut in thin slices lengthwise. When all these things are ready you should make layers of them in a baking pan, bake for about 30 minutes and the lasagna is ready. In this recipe the soft consistency of the mixture of crescenza and béchamel is well accompanied with the crunchy consistency of the mixture of bread and walnuts. BUON APPETITO!


INGREDIENTS (for 4 - 6 people):
400 g of Asparagus
1 Roll
30 g of Walnuts
50 ml of Milk
400 g of Crescenza (kind of soft cheese typical of Lombardo)
40 g of Parmesan
350 g of Lasagne
500 ml of Béchamel

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 30 minutes

WINE: Friuli Annia Pinot bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water, with a drizzle of oil, boil for lasagne; the presence of oil in the water is necessary so the lasagne don’t stick between them.



When water boils add in it 10 lasagne at a time and cook them for 3 – 4 minutes, drain them with the help of a skimmer paying attention to not break them, and place them on a table in order to let them cool.



Then clean the asparagus and remove the hardest part of the stem, place them in high pan with water and after water boils cooked them for about 10 minutes. It is important that the asparagus remain in vertical position in the pan so that their head is out of water and cook with vapour.



When the asparagus are cooked drain them paying attention to not break their head, let them cool and cut them in thin slice lengthwise. In the meantime prepare the bread and the walnuts, crumble them and put them together in a bowl.





In another bowl mix together the milk, the crescenza and the Parmesan.



Now prepare the béchamel looking the instructions presented here, when the béchamel is ready, mix them with mixture of crescenza, and now begin to prepare the lasagna.



Pre heat the oven to 200°C. Cover with a sheet of baking paper a squared baking pan, place on it some mixture of béchamel and crescenza, a first layer of pasta, a layer of asparagus



and a little of the mixture of bread and walnuts, continue in this way until the pan is full.



Bake the pan for about 30 minutes and cook lasagna until the surface become golden. Serve hot.
This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!

Orecchiette with Asparagus

Asparagus are vegetable typical of the spring and summer period in particular from April to June, they are vegetables ideal for the preparation of any kind of Italian recipes. Typically they are used to prepare risotto but very good are also first courses with pasta like the Italian recipes presented below or also second courses and appetizers. Here I prepare a first course made with fresh orecchiette, that is a typical type of pasta from Puglia, seasoned with a sauce of asparagus, cream and walnuts. The preparation of this recipe is simple and fast because the asparagus are an Italian food that need a short time of cooking, indeed only 10 minutes are sufficient in order to make a puree of asparagus, then to obtain the delicious sauce of this recipe it’s sufficient to add some cream and walnuts and so the seasoning is ready. The presence of walnuts give to the sauce a crunch consistency that is well matches with the soft consistency of the puree of asparagus.


INGREDIENTS (for 4 people):
400 of Orecchiette
400 g of Asparagus
30 g of Walnuts crumbled
250 ml of Cream
1 Clove of garlic
Salt
Black Pepper
Marjoram
4 Tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

PREPARATION TIME: 20 minutes

COOKING TIME: 15 minutes

WINE: Friuli Annia Pinot bianco (White Wine)

PREPARATION
Let salted water boil for orecchiette. Wash the asparagus and remove the hardest and woody part of the asparagus’s stem. Now preheat the extra virgin olive oil in a pan with the clove of garlic and let it brown, in the meantime cut the stems of the asparagus in small discs maintaining the tender head entire



and add them to the pan, add 1 glass of water and let them cook for about 10 minutes.





When the asparagus are cooked, remove from them the best head, that you'll use for the decoration of the dish and place the others in a mixer in order to obtain a sort of puree of asparagus. Re-place the mousse of asparagus in the same pan, add the walnuts, the cream



and sprinkle with salt, black pepper and marjoram,



mix all together and the sauce is ready. When water boils add the orecchiette and cooked them for the time indicated on the packaging, when they are cooked, drain them and add them to the sauce, mix, garnish each dish with the the entire head of the asparagus and serve hot.
This is the result:



BUON APPETITO!