For some odd reason I was under the impression that I didn’t like asparagus. Well when you’re as restricted as we are it doesn’t pay to have many of those types of things – or else you soon won’t have anything left at all. In any case I have no idea where I got that from as asparagus is lovely.
the simplest things are the best.
Somehow I feel like something as simple as this doesn’t warrant the title “recipe”. It’s just three things on a plate in the end. But honestly this dish is so good that I couldn’t not put it here – the proof of the maxim “the simplest things are the best”.
Enough for 4 as a starter or side
- A generous handful of fresh asparagus
- about 50g of good parmesan cheese (you probably won’t need all of that though)
- the juice of about one 3rd of a lemon
- A handful of pine nuts
- Olive oil
- Salt and black pepper
- Toast the pine nuts on a medium heat in a dry pan.
- On a plate toss the asparagus in a touch of olive oil and a pinch of salt.
- Heat a griddle pan (or a regular pan if you don’t have one) to a medium heat and spread the asparagus over it.
- Whilst the asparagus is cooking shave some parmesan by dragging a sharp knife across it – you could of course just grate it but I think it looks cuter this way.
- When the asparagus has taken some colour and lost it’s raw stiffness – this probably takes about 5-10 minutes, depending very much on the size of the asparagus – remove from the pan and place on the oiled plate from before.
- Add a grind of black pepper and drizzle of olive and the squeeze of lemon and toss the asparagus.
- Sprinkle over the toasted pine nuts and parmesan and serve while still warm.
delicious