Asparagus Parmesan
As all you regular readers will know, I completely fell in love with a thrift-store set of cookbooks I bought on Easter for $4.95 for a 5 volume set! The vegetable volume of Favorite Recipes of America is (of course) my absolute favorite. It is incredible to look in my crisper at a vegetable I need to use up and be able to flip through an entire chapter of recipes using that very veggie. The first such experiment produced the delectable Broccoli Parmesan , which, even though I’ve always been a HUGE fan of eggplant Parmesan, I liked EVEN MORE than the traditional eggplant parm. This week, I received an absolutely beautiful pound of fresh asparagus in my CSA box.
The stalks were nice and thin and tender and I absolutely could not wait to make something delicious with them. So, I pulled out my trusty new-to-me cookbook (it’s actually from the 1960s) and began flipping through the asparagus chapter. About 3/4 of the way through my delighted little eyes fell upon a recipe for Asparagus Parmesan and I may have actually squealed out loud. Now, if I hadn’t made that awesome broccoli parm recently, I might’ve poo-pooed the tomato sauce-aspargus pairing. I usually like my asparagus grilled with a balsamic vinaigrette, after all. But, it was so successful with myself and Mr. Meaty husband that I knew there was a great chance this would be a hit, too.
And that’s when I began to doubt my choice. Would this parm live up to the broccoli parm? Is it too soon to make another parm dish? Am I getting stuck in a culinary rut? I’m so incredibly glad that I quashed those annoying little doubts and decided to try this dish. It is INCREDIBLE. Mr. Meaty and I actually argued a bit over the last serving. It was just that good.
Asparagus Parmesan
Serves 8
Ingredients
1 pound fresh asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 red onion, diced
2 cloves roasted garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
8 Roma tomatoes, diced (about 2 cups)
1/4 teaspoonhymeee
unceeses tomato sauce
8 ouncces mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Directions
Blanch asparagus for 1 minute and cool. Spread across the bottom of a 13 x 9 shallow baking dish.
Saute onion in oil until golden. Add garlic and tomatoes. Simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Add thyme and tomato sauce. Simmer 20 minutes longer.
Pour sauce over asparagus. Top with mozzarella and Parmesan.
Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. Serve over pasta, if desired.
Adapted from Favorite Recipes of America, Vegetables Volume
Recipe Source: VeggieConverter.com
The Results
Fantastic. My husband actually gave me a verbal warning not to change the recipe AT ALL the next time we make this, saying it was perfect as is. The absolute only thing I would change the next time I make this is to cut the asparagus into 2-inch pieces. I went for the pretty factor and kept the stalks whole, but it’d be easier to eat cut into pieces.
[nggallery id=1]
This post is shared with Real Food Wednesday, Whole Food Wednesdays, What’s Cooking Wednesday, Works for me Wednesday, These Chicks Cooked and Bake with Bizzy, Hearth and Soul Hop.
