Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Eat This: Roasted Asparagus, Yolky Egg, with Cheese, Bread, and Charcuterie


Just because it's summertime is no excuse to avoid the oven, especially when roasted farmer's market asparagus is on the menu.  I highly urge you to make this for yourselves and experience the ease, joy, and deliciousness of a 15 minute meal that transports you immediately to a small sidewalk cafe on a narrow, cobblestoned Parisian street.  Plus, it'll make your pee smell funny.  Win-win!

What you need:
Asparagus
Eggs
Good bread
Good charcuterie
Good cheese
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
A delicious beverage (I like a glass of chilled white or pink wine, and SLB favors a cold beer.  Please yourself on this one, friends.)

What to do with it
1.  Preheat the oven to 400
2.  Wash your asparagus and trim off the woody ends.
3.  Put your asparagus on a sheet pan, then toss it with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a good grinding of pepper.
4.  Pop that tray in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the girth and mass of your asparagus, until it's roasted through.
5.  Now, while the asparagus is roasting, slice yourself some delicious bread, cheeses, and meats.  Arrange artfully on your plate or platter.
6.  Then, as your meat and cheese approach room temperature and become their unrefrigerated, flavorful selves and while the asparagus is still roasting away, make yourself a yolky egg of your choosing.  Some like them poached, but I like them sunny side up.  Ideally, your egg will be finished just as the asparagus comes out of the oven, but asparagus can wait for your egg to cook if it has to.  No worries.
7.  Place your egg on top of a healthy serving of asparagus.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Devour with your bread, cheeses, and meats.
8.  Toast yourself for being so continental, even as you eat dinner on the floor in front of a Daily Show rerun.  Aren't you sophisticated?  YES.  Yes, you are.

2 comments:

Dad Solo said...

One of the greatest small things in life is stumbling into the bathroom at 1 a.m. and letting it rip, then thinking "Hey, what the hell ... oh, right! Asparagus for dinner!" That never fails to make me smile.

I guess I'm truly a man of simple pleasures.

Christina said...

i prefer strategically holding it until right before slb stumbles into the bathroom to brush his teeth. share and share alike.