Asparagus Fritatta

 Today I made a recipe from Smitten Kitchen: Asparagus Frittata. The great thing about this recipe is that you don't need to cook or stir fry the asparagus first. It's an all-in-one recipe, and it turned out great. It served three of us for dinner (not 6, as stated in the recipe).

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound asparagus, cleaned, not trimmed
• 8 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons milk or cream
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 2 scallions, thinly sliced on the diagonal [I substituted chives]
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 to 4 ounces soft goat cheese, crumbled (to taste)

Prepare the asparagus: No need to snap off the tough ends of your asparagus. Lay a single stalk on its side on a cutting board. Holding onto the tough end, use a vegetable peeler to peel ribbons away from the tough end (and your hand) right through the soft tip. Discard the tough ends once you’re done peeling. [I really liked this method!]

 

Heat your broiler.

Vigorously beat your eggs with the milk or cream, plus salt and pepper until well-combined. Stir in scallions [I used chives]. Gently add asparagus peels, just swishing the egg mixture over them.

 

Heat your skillet over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Let it heat fully, then swish it around so it goes up the sides of the pan. Pour in asparagus and egg mixture, nudging the asparagus around so it mostly stays level with the eggs. Crumble goat cheese over, to taste. Cook gently (lowering the heat to medium-low if needed) for about 5 minutes, until the edges are set and brown but it’s still loose and eggy on top. Transfer skillet to the broiler and cook for another 1 to 3 minutes, keeping a close eye on it, until eggs are set on top.

Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges, or longer if you’d like to eat it at room temperature.

Verdict: Easy to make and delicious. Tastes good hot or lukewarm or even cold. Could easily go into a lunchbox. 10/10

Fettuccine with Asparagus

Another NY Times Cooking recipe. My family isn't keen on ricotta-based sauces, so I picked this recipe, because who doesn't like pasta with butter and cheese? Fresh asparagus and herbs add some green.

Step 4: Drop the fettuccine into salted boiling water. Let cook to desired degree of doneness (cooking time will range from about 2 to 2 1/2 minutes for fresh pasta to 9 minutes or more for dried). Reserve 2 tablespoons cooking water. Drain the pasta

Step 5: Heat the butter in the pot in which the pasta was cooked. Add the asparagus pieces and the fettuccine. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add the reserved 2 tablespoons of cooking water and basil. Toss to blend. Serve hot with Parmesan cheese on the side.

I used parsley instead of basil and added some toasted pine nuts (because we had them). It was alright, but will probably not become a standard (too much green for our tween).

The NYT Cooking Site

...is great. A couple of things I've made over the past couple of weeks:

Pasta with chicken and mushrooms, risotto-style

It was fine, but I thought the somewhat cumbersome risotto method didn't add all that much to the flavor.

Fettuccine with asparagus and smoked salmon

Very good and I liked the fact that I didn't have to cook the salmon.

(Deconstructed) Lasagna with asparagus and chives

Fine. Not sure I got the lasagna part right -- other pasta would have worked as well. I did like the use of ricotta!

Mushroom risotto with peas

Fine. Not six servings, though. The parsley matters!

Onwards!

Fettuccine with Asparagus and Salmon

Another recipe with asparagus from the Times' Cooking Website. Quick and easy, though not exactly light (I used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of heavy cream). Too bad Whole Foods didn't have green fettuccine. Otherwise I pretty much followed the recipe and it was a very satisfying dish.

I didn't click on nutritional information.

Random recipe: Deconstructed lasagna with asparagus and chives

Deconstructed Lasagna with Asparagus and Chives

This recipe, from the NYT's new Cooking website, was a hit on a warm and humid night in May. Easy to prepare (not many ingredients, no complicated chopping or peeling or sauteeing), not too heavy (thanks to the use of ricotta -- of the whole milk kind -- rather than cream), not too pasta-y (thanks to a lb. of asparagus). My family loved it. Five out of five.

Week 13: Oven Roasted Red Potatoes and Asparagus

Vegetable(s): Potatoes, Asparagus


 


Potatoes! I haven't done potatoes yet! Here's the recipe I picked:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, cut into chunks

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I completely forgot about the garlic and didn't miss it at all)

• 4 teaspoons dried rosemary

• 4 teaspoons dried thyme

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 bunch fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces

• ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large baking dish, toss the red potatoes with 1/2 the olive oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and 1/2 the kosher salt. Cover with aluminum foil.
3. Bake 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Mix in the asparagus, remaining olive oil, and remaining salt. Cover, and continue cooking 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Remove foil, and continue cooking 5 to 10 minutes, until potatoes are lightly browned. Season with pepper to serve.

Prepping

My favorite knife (Carnado from Hugo Pott)

Almost done!

Apart from leaving out the garlic, I followed the recipe to a letter. It turned out quite wonderful, the potatoes were brown and crisp (our daughter ate a slice that looked like a potato chip and about 1/4 inch of asparagus), the asparagus was not mushy, the spices came together very well. My original plan had been to serve the potatoes with a fried egg, but in the end, I thought just the potatoes were enough. The recipe was supposed to serve 4-6, but we polished it off a deux. (We were hungry.)


Verdict: 9/10 (for me), 8/10 (for the family) -- I rate it very high because it's inexpensive, very easy to make, there aren't too many ingredients, and it tasted quite wonderful, crunchy and soft, and the kitchen smelled of rosemary. I can see that others might consider this a side dish, but for me, it was a meal.