Roasted Asparagus with Walnut Crema and Pecorino

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I have it in my mind that you can watch asparagus grow, that you could spend an afternoon in a folding chair with a kombucha and a sun hat and watch the little shoots extend from tiny nubs to Jack-and-the-Beanstock proportions.  Since I lack both a garden and a completely unscheduled afternoon, this vision will have to wait.  But I have witnessed a similar display at home.  For several months, Elinor seemed to match my mythical asparagus.  During her first couple months, her palpable growth was outward, not upward.  In the third and fourth months, she sprouted up, making her a long and solid little girl.  And now I can’t tell how she’s growing, if she’s swelling or sprouting.

Perhaps she’ll end up how I’ve always liked my asparagus: lithe and agile.  I love to eat little spears, thin as number-two pencils or coffee stirrers, even, with my hands, flitting them through some homemade mayonnaise while picnicking.  Or maybe she’ll resemble those sturdy stalks that require a knife and fork to eat, that fill you up after only four spears.  Wonder as I may, it turns out that there is already an answer to this question, which I learned on November 21, Elinor’s due date.  I was doing some essential research about how her personality would change at the stroke of midnight that night, when, unless I delivered her immediately, the possibility of her being a Scorpio dissolved and her becoming a Sagittarius became certain.  I read about how she would be curious and ardent, not extreme and intense.  And, apparently, she would no longer be voluptuous and curvy, as all Scorpios are; instead, she would be lean and tall.  Commensensical.  Obvious.  Right?  I thought DNA and diet had something to do with her stature.  Wrong.

So this recipe, celebrating thick, meaty asparagus, is in honor of Scorpio women and their ubiquitous Junoesque figures.  Silky walnut cream, pungent pecorino shavings, and toasted walnuts top blistered asparagus.  Hooray for vegetables that can stand alone for dinner.

Sorry, Elinor.  It doesn’t matter that you are 27 inches and more than 20 pounds at five months.  You will be a beanpole.  In the meantime, eat, via me, this substantial asparagus.  [/donotprint]

Roasted Asparagus with Walnut Crema and Pecorino
Adapted from A16: Food + Wine

Walnut Crema
1 cup walnuts
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, roughly chopped

Roasted Asparagus
Extra-virgin olive oil
20 spears of jumbo asparagus
Unrefined sea salt
2/3 cup walnuts
Pecorino (or pecorino tartufo) for grating

Serves 4 as a substantial accompaniment or as a light main course.

Note on the cheese: Pecorino simply means sheep’s milk cheese from Italy.  There are several types, ranging from soft to hard.  I had been using Parmigiano-Reggiano (parmesan from Emilia-Romagna or Lombardy) almost exclusively as my grating cheese, but I recently have been exploring different hard cheeses and have been enjoying the pungency of Pecorino Romano, unpasteurized and made in the Lazio region, Rome’s home.  Finely grained and brittle, it complements bolder foods, and I’ve noticed that it works well with olive-oil-based dishes.  In contrast, Parmigiano-Reggiano’s gentle nuttiness seems to complement butter-driven food, which I suppose makes sense given that the cuisine of Emillia-Romagna, where Parmigiano-Reggiano is made, relies largely on rich ingredients, such as butter, prosciutto, and egg pasta (or at least this is what I gathered during the time I spent in Bologna).  In the original recipe, Nate Appelman, former head chef of A16 and author of the namesake cookbook, recommends using pecorino tartufo (he shows black truffles).  I tried using Pecorino Romano and pecorino tartufo and found that, while distinct, the truffles didn’t add enough to justify pecorino tartufo for everyday use.  Save it for your date night in.  Finally, both Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino Romano are made from raw milk and are aged, meaning that they retain all the liveliness of raw milk, and, because of the aging process, have more accessible calcium and are easier to digest.

Note on the nuts: To make the nuts more easily digested and their nutrients more available, try this method (requires advance planning).

C O O K .

• Crema. Boil 1 cup of the walnuts in salted water for 8 to 10 minutes, until softened in the middle.  Reserve ½ cup of the cooking liquid.  Combine the walnuts, onions, and 2 tablespoons of the cooking liquid in a food processor or blender and process until smooth (if cooking by hand, mince the dry ingredients and use a mortar and pestle to combine, adding the liquid as necessary).  Then add the olive oil in a drizzle.  If the resulting crema is thicker than hummus, add more of the cooking liquid.  Add salt to taste, if necessary.
• Toasted walnuts. (Follow this step only if you haven’t previously crisped the nuts as described in the note above.)  Coarsely chop 2/3 cup of the walnuts.  Toast on the stove top over medium heat, shaking often, until fragrant.
• Asparagus. Preheat the oven to 500°F.  Bend the asparagus spears near the end and discard the woody tips that snap off.  Arrange the spears on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle extra-virgin olive oil over the spears, making sure each spear is coated with oil.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Roast the spears in the oven until they are blistered and just tender, not soggy, about 8 to 10 minutes.

E  A T   A N D  D R I N K . Spread the crema on the plate, add five spears, sprinkle with walnuts, and shave the cheese over the top. For wine, try a white Burgundy or an unoaked Chardonnay from California.  White Rhone varietals Roussanne and Marsanne would also pair well.

R E F I G U R E . Roast as much asparagus as you can store.  It’s only in season for a short time, and there are so many things to do with it.

• With radicchio and blood oranges. Core and thinly slice radicchio.  Top with asparagus, blood orange segments, a dressing of blood orange and/or lemon juice, extra-virgin olive oil, and sea salt.
• On toast with a poached egg and parmesan. Toast a large, thick slice of rustic bread, lightly run a raw clove of garlic over the top of the toast and spread a layer of butter, then add the asparagus, a poached egg, grated parmesan (or leftover pecorino), chunky sea salt, and pepper.
• With prosciutto and mustard cream. Lay some asparagus over a couple slices of prosciutto (my favorite domestic is La Quercia’s Green Label, which uses Becker Lane’s pasture-raised, organic hogs), and drizzle with a cream of whole-grain mustard and crème fraîche.
• With spring’s best in show. Slice asparagus into one-inch pieces on the diagonal.  Mix with freshly shelled peas or fava beans and morel mushrooms.  Cook briefly over medium-high heat with butter.  Sprinkle dill and chunky sea salt on top (yes, I often finish a dish with a tiny amount of, you guessed, chunky sea salt; it enhances the flavors quite well).

L I T T L E  E A T S . I pureed the asparagus with some stock (chicken) and butter.  Elinor’s not eating finger food yet, but I imagine that the asparagus, diced and drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil or butter and dusted with the pecorino, would be well received.

Text and photo © Blue Egg Kitchen 2010

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