Asparagus Soup

Tis the season for Jersey asparagus. As soon as my fave farmer's market opened on May 1, I snatched up a bundle of spears. I decided to make a simple asparagus soup. OMG. It's amazing. 

I used my "Silver Spoon" cookbook as inspiration. This is a book that is considered to be the "Joy of Cooking" of Italy. It was translated to English in 2005, and it was quite a big deal according to The New York Times and esteemed culinary institutions so I decided to snatch one up right then and there.

Honestly, I don't cook from it very much, but I totally need to! This book is a great reference.

I followed the recipe very closely. I did add about 6 sprigs of fresh thyme tied together with kitchen twine as my thyme is already bumping in my herb garden. And thyme and asparagus are totally homies.

I also used a splash of half and half instead of cream because that's what I have. Finally, I blended the soup with my immersion blender rather than transferring it to a food processor or standard blender. I'm pretty confidant the immersion blender took longer to puree the soup than the processor or standard blender, but it's less cleanup. So, pick your poison. My immersion blender did make the puree crazy smooth. It was a great texture.

This soup reheats nicely the next day. The parboiled asparagus spears really maintain their crispness. 

The ingredient list is sparse and that allows the asparagus to truly shine. I garnished with chopped fresh chives, because like my thyme they are bumping in my garden already! Woo hoo. 

Cream of Asparagus Soup

Serves 4

From "The Silver Spoon" cookbook

1 lb., 5 oz. green asparagus spears, trimmed

1/4 cup butter

1 onion, thinly sliced

2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour

scant 1/2 cup white wine

4 cups vegetable stock

2-3 Tbsp. heavy cream

Salt and pepper

1. Cut off and reserve the asparagus spears and chop the stems. 

2. Melt the butter in a pan, add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes until softened. Add the asparagus stems and cook for a few minutes, then sprinkle with flour, stir well and pour in the wine and stock. Season with salt and pepper and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes. 

3. Transfer to a food processor and process to a puree. Bring 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a pan and parboil the asparagus spears for 2 minutes. Pour the puree into a clean pan and reheat. Drain the asparagus spears and add to the soup with cream. Serve in individual soup plates.

Please note: The Jersey Girl added 6 thyme sprigs tied together with kitchen twine while sauteeing the onion and asparagus stems. She removed them before pureeing with her immersion blender. She also used half and half in lieu of heavy cream. She garnished the soup with chopped fresh chives.

Spring into Action

Spring associations for the Jersey Girl include but are not limited to:

Cute clothes (I mean, don’t you totally covet the entire spring J. Crew collection? No? Just me?? )

Opening Day. (Which means The Husband will be spending all of his upcoming free time with his mistress aka The Phillies.)

Allergies.

Time for a pedicure.

Window cleaning.

Asparagus.

God, my list is so lame.

Today, we will focus on the asparagus. Particularly, the asparagus salad the Jersey Girl rocked out on Easter – the only holiday that the fam permits me to host.

Truth be told, I was totally hoping The Husband would burst into the house during March, pop open a bottle of bubbly and declare, “Woman, Pack your bags. I am whisking you off in a private jet to Aruba for Easter.” Ironically, I have washed my hands of General Hospital for almost a year now. So where this dream came from…. Who knows?

Fun fact: March was the month that The Jersey Girl household was keeping it real with a minimum of one family member per day suffering from some kind of cough, cold or bug. As if, there isn’t enough laundry and cleaning to do when we’re healthy. Thanks, God.

Once April rolled around, my sickly party of three was finally on the mend. And, so of course the Jersey Girl was all about planning the Easter festivities.

By this stage of the game, holiday preparations are a bit like clockwork. Or, tradition if you will.

For instance, my Easter brunch always features Lidia’s Scallion and Asparagus Salad. It’s super awesome and springy. An easy breezy red wine dressing brightens up the blanched vegetables. Once it’s all tossed together, the true symbol of spring – eggs in hard-boiled form – are scattered atop the bowl of green lovelies. Then, you just chill the salad until time to serve.

I suppose the kink in the matter is that the dish MUST be prepared the day of your brunch. This is where my OCD-type list-making comes in real REAL handy.

Scallion and Asparagus Salad

From “Lidia’s Family Table”

Lidia Bastianich

 Serves 6

1 1/2 pounds fresh asparagus

3/4 pound scallions

3 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon salt, or more if needed

Freshly ground pepper to taste

3 hard-cooked eggs, peeled

Cooking the Vegetables
With a vegetable peeler, shave off the skin from the bottom 3 inches or so of each stalk, so they cook evenly. Snap off the hard stubs at the bottom of the asparagus stalks—they'll break naturally at the right point.

Trim the root end of each scallion and the wilted ends of the green leaves. Peel off the loose layers at the white end too, so the scallions are all tight, trim, and about 6 inches long.

In a wide deep skillet, bring 1 quart of water (or enough to cover the vegetables) to a boil, and add the asparagus and scallions.

Adjust the heat to maintain a bubbling boil, and poach the asparagus and scallions, uncovered, for about 6 minutes or more, until they are tender but not falling apart, and cooked through but not mushy. To check doneness, pick up an asparagus spear in the middle with tongs; it should be a little droopy but not collapsing.

As soon as they are done, lift out the vegetables with tongs and lay them in a colander (any fat asparagus spears may take a little longer, so leave them in a few minutes more). Hold the colander under cold running water to stop the cooking. Drain briefly, then spread on kitchen towels, pat dry, and sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon salt over them.

Making the Salad
Slice the asparagus and the scallions into 1-inch lengths, and pile them loosely in a mixing bowl. Drizzle the oil and vinegar over them, then sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon salt and several grinds of black pepper. Toss well, but don't break up the vegetables.

Quarter the eggs into wedges, and slice each wedge into two or three pieces; salt lightly and scatter the egg in the bowl, and fold in with the vegetables. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Chill the salad briefly, then arrange it on a serving platter or on salad plates.

Actin' a Fool

Shopping on the Internets after a night of boozing?

Probably not such a grand idea.

But, the Jersey Girl thought it was an AWESOME thing to do a few years ago while visiting my sis Monica and b-i-l Jason down in Alexandria, Va.

Along with The Husband, we had just gone out for some good eats and major wine consumption, when talk turned to cookbooks. “The Silver Spoon” had recently been translated to anglaise, and as a collector of all things books and cooking, I knew this bazillion-pager was my soulmate. According to many published reports, “The Silver Spoon” is a super duper popular cookbook in the motherland a.k.a. Italy. It is also the self-proclaimed “bible of authentic Italian cooking.”

Yes, please.

I had spent the previous day perusing my sister’s copy from cover-to-cover and took to the book this same delightful evening of inebriation.

Not surprisingly, my next course of action was hijacking the laptop and placing an order on Amazon.

I was thrilled to see the book was a fab price – it was like 25 smackaroos.

But here’s the catch: Thanks to shaky fingers, blurred vision, mindless chitchat and a nightcap, no doubt, The Jersey Girl clicked “Overnight Super Expensive Really Majorly Concorde Fast Shipping” rather than my usual “Super Saver Free Shipping Get It Sometime Next Week” box.

Superb, Susan. Good job!

So, yeah. The book totally beat us home. But traffic on I-95 from D.C. is killer, OK.

And it cost about $70 when all is said and done because I think I added a novel or something to my purchase to get the free shipping.

Oh, the irony.

The Husband razzes me about this fine moment to this day.

It happened like three years ago.

Despite my shopping gaffe, “The Silver Spoon” is fabu.

Here is a rockin’ asparagrass recipe from its many pages. Yes, I know it’s ASPARAGUS. But the Jersey Girl has her own lingo in her own little world.

The recipe rocks. I blanched the asparagus for just about 9 minutes, instead of the 15 as called for in the recipe. I don’t groove on mushy asparagrass. I also ixnayed the toothpicks. Waste of time. You don’t need them. And, I cut down on the butta. Plus, I melted the butter. God, as I’m writing this, I guess you could say I didn’t really follow “The Silver Spoon” recipe too well. Ooops.

Asparagus Rolls
From “The Silver Spoon”
Serves 4

2 ¼ pounds asparagus, spears trimmed
¼ cup butter, plus extra for greasing
3 ½ ounces prosciutto, sliced
Scant 1 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Salt

Cook the asparagus in salted, boiling water for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter. Drain the asparagus and gently pat dry. Spread out the prosciutto on the counter, lay two large or three small asparagus spears on each slice, roll up and fasten each roulade with a toothpick. Place the rolls in the prepared dish. Sprinkle with Parmesan, dot with butter and bake for 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Please note: The Jersey Girl blanched the asparagus for 9 minutes, did not use toothpicks, and used just 2 Tbsp. of butter, rather than ¼ cup.