Gourmet Asparagus!

Asparagus brings back great memories of my childhood.  My mom was a high school English and Drama teacher in an rural Northwest high school, and many of her students worked in the fields before school (the movie McFarland captured a bit of the flavor of her experience. Minus the sports.)  Sometimes the students would bring her a brown paper bag of freshly cut “grass,” as they called asparagus.  And we would feast!  What we couldn’t eat that week, we blanched and froze for later.  (In fact, I like to brag to my kids that I am so tough that I even helped freeze asparagus on the day I had my wisdom teeth removed!)

Roasting asparagus is my default preparation method, and this addition makes a reliable side dish go from wonderful to fantastic with one easy addition!  If you haven’t discovered fennel, this is a great recipe to give it a try.  It has a distinctive, yet complementary taste.  (And I love to include raw fennel in salads!)

• 2 bunches organic asparagus
• 2 small or 1 large organic fennel bulbs
• 1 TBSP olive oil
• 2 TBSP butter or olive oil
• freshly ground salt and pepper
• chopped fennel leaves, for garnish

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
• Wash and pat dry the asparagus
• Hold each stem close to the cut end, and snap off the ends.  This will prevent getting any tough ends

• Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with 1 TBSP olive oil, and toss gently to coat (I do this by hand, sort of rubbing the olive oil around the asparagus)
• Sprinkle with the salt and pepper
• Roast in the oven for about 8-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the asparagus.  It should be tender-crisp
• Meanwhile, wash, trim, and thinly slice the fennel bulbs

• Heat the butter or olive oil to medium low in the skillet
• Add the fennel, and stir frequently until tender.  The heat should be low enough that the fennel will not brown before it is tender.  It should be just slightly browned

• Taste and season with salt
• When the asparagus is ready, remove from the oven and arrange on a serving plate
• Spoon the fennel onto the top of the asparagus, sprinkle with the chopped fennel leaves, and serve!

You’ll be amazed at how just a little fennel adds so much class to a basic vegetable!

Love,

Lassen’s