Egg and Asparagus
This particular recipe comes from Emilia but there are similar recipes using these two
ingredients from all over the world. Egg and asparagus go together like truffles and hounds...
a marriage made in heaven, which tastes all the better because you can only eat it in asparagus
season. Simple recipes are often the tastiest, and this is no exception. You need roughly 1 egg
for every 50 g asparagus, once the woody part has been removed. The beauty of this dish is
cutting into the egg yolk, which will run down on to the asparagus. Serve just with a doorstep of
bread with butter. Serves 4
Ingredients:
500 g asparagus
8 eggs
butter
100 g Parmesan cheese, grated
salt
Clean and wash the asparagus, removing the woody part from the fleshy part by bending
the spears. They will snap where the two parts meet. Blanch the tender tips in slightly salted
water for about 5–6 minutes until they are almost soft and then drain them.
Divide the spears between four terracotta ramekins (or place in one larger one) and carefully
break 2 eggs into each ramekin, without breaking the yolks. Put some specks of butter on top of
each egg and sprinkle with the Parmesan cheese.
Place in the oven at Gas Mark 5/190°C for 15 minutes or under a medium hot grill for about 10 minutes, until the egg whites are firm and the yolk are still soft.
*taken from the book ‘From Seed to plate’ by Paolo Arrigo, published by Simon and Schuster