I was tempted by bunches of local asparagus at Integral Yoga the other day, but I held off because we hadn’t yet gotten the first asparagus from our CSA. I always like to make the CSA asparagus an occasion for celebrating, because not only is it lovely to taste the stuff again after a long winter, but it marks the beginning of the farm season. The purist in me didn’t want to dilute the "holiday" by buying asparagus in the store.
As it turned out, today was the day. I picked up our bag of nearly two pounds of A (I don’t want to type "asparagus" anymore) along with some parmesan, a lemon and a baguette. I’d found this recipe for a barley risotto on epicurious–seemed like an easy but slightly fancy way to showcase the A.
Chopped spears
Finished risotto
A decent recipe, though I’d maybe use a little stock instead of only the water from boiling the A. Also, I plum forgot to garnish with the hazelnuts.
It seems especially fitting to celebrate this particular veggie because we just got our own A patch established. When we’re harvesting this stuff from right outside the back door, it’ll be more than a holiday. It’ll be a party.
What’s your favorite way to cook asparagus? (There, I typed it.)