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Prep Time: 0 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 0 Minutes Servings: 2 |
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If you love asparagus but have never had it roasted, you're in for a real treat. Biting into the crispy brown tips of the spears reminds me a bit of the texture and taste of potato chips! It makes a good side dish, but being the kind of quick and dirty graduate student cook that I am lately, I'm much more likely to eat it as a main dish with a simple open-faced sandwich of rye bread and gruyere, and a V-8, and it's almost like a balanced meal. Read more . :) Ingredients:
asparagus (about a pound) |
olive oil |
coarse sea salt |
Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Wash your asparagus. To trim it, grasp a few stalks at a time in one hand, holding the bunch around half-way down the stalk. Snap off the spears at the point where, rather than bending, they snap. It's usually about halfway to 2/3 of the way down the stalk.
3. You can keep the tough bottoms of the stalks if you want to make asparagus stock, perhaps for risotto. Otherwise, discard them.
4. Dry your asparagus spears with a clean, dry kitchen towel, and place it in a single layer on a baking tray.
5. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with coarse sea salt to taste.
6. Bake in the oven for about 10-15 minutes. Halfway through, it's not a bad idea to open up the oven and turn over the spears. They're kind of unwieldy to turn, so it doesn't have to be precise. Just scoot them around until they seem like another part of the surface of the spear is in contact with the tray.
7. Keep an eye on the asparagus toward the end. You want it browned and crispy and tender, but if you leave it in too long, it gets mushy on the inside. It still tastes good that way, but it's better before that point.
8. The olive oil in the pan may smoke a little. Don't worry about that too much, but you'll want your kitchen fan on if you have one.
9. You may wish to eat the asparagus, like me, on top of a slightly modified version of open-faced proscuitto sandwiches Open Faced Proscuitto Sandwiches
10. the asparagus tastes especially delicious to me with gruyere or parmesan (rather than provolone).
11. It's also delicious cut into smaller pieces and served with a simple pasta, like whole wheat spaghetti with olive oil, sauteed garlic, herbs, salt, pepper, and parmesan, and perhaps some toasted walnuts.
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