Asparagus 4 different ways

Spring is now in full swing around here, and with it now we are loving the arrival of the early green vegetables: peas, pea tips, spinach, fava beans, asparagus . . .

During this month of May we try to offer several different preparations of asparagus each week:  on our regular menu, a shaved raw asparagus salad with bittergreens, manchego cheese and anchovy vinaigrette; on our Sunday Night menu, roasted asparagus in a warm salad with an olive oil-poached Aracauna egg and black truffle vinaigrette; as a vegetable accompaniment to the skillet-roasted skate on our current menu we use sautéed asparagus tips;  on our Monday Night Tapas Bar menu, grilled asparagus spears drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled with grated piave cheese.

These four menu offerings display the versatility of asparagus and three different methods for preparing this wonderful spring treat.  Anyone who has seen asparagus growing in the field understands even better from that experience the exuberant and urgent nature of its freshness and appreciates the tender green and pleasant mildly bitter quality of brand-new spears.  Whenever possible, we try to avoid pre-cooking it in salted water, and as you can see none of these three presentations use that step.

Freshness is a must with this vegetable, and thanks to our farmer friends I usually prefer to serve it raw to give the diners a clean, true impression of this vegetable — not the watered-down version.  Similar to our (somewhat unusual) approach also with shaved artichokes or brussels sprouts leaves, a little salt and lemon juice will bring out the unique flavor qualities inherent in this vegetable.  So, I recommend that you try using fresh, raw asparagus the next time you plan to use it in a salad, and that you avoid pre-cooking it before grilling.