Friday, April 16, 2010

Asparagus with Toasted Pine Nuts & Lemon Vinaigrette


Remember the days when "You've Got Mail" was exciting?  Now when I hear my email ding I think, "What now?" and usually it's an offer for Xanax or well, you know.

Back in the day I sincerely didn't know there was anything beyond AOL. When I found out there was I felt like my entire world opened up. One of the first sites I found was this little no-frills recipe site. Back then most of the sites were no-frill. It's been so long that I can't even remember the site, but they had thousands of recipes.  It was like I had found a treasure trove.  This is the first recipe I ever got online and it is one of my favorites. I still have my tattered little printed copy from my StyleWriter II.

This recipe so simple and easy to make, but so delicious.  Now that asparagus is in season you should really try this.  I know pine nuts are a bit pricey, but you only need three tablespoons.  (You can tell that I obviously went a little nuts on the pine nut front last time I made this.)  Let me know what you think!

Ingredients
  • 1 pound fresh asparagus
  • 3 tablespoons pine nuts
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice, fresh
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • pepper, freshly ground
Instructions
  1. Start boiling water.
  2. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, basil and oregano in small bowl and set aside.
  3. Heat a small skillet over medium and toast pine nuts stirring constantly. Set aside.
  4. Snap off touch ends of asparagus
  5. Remove scales from stalks with knife or vegetable peeler, if desired.
  6. Place spears in a steaming rack over boiling water; cover and steam 4-5 minutes or until spears are crisp-tender.
  7. Place asparagus in bowl or on serving platter and toss with olive oil mixture.
  8. Sprinkle with pine nuts.

No comments:

Post a Comment