Asparagi Bianchi alla Veneta / White Asparagus alla Veneta

April 20, 2024

Serves two:

  • about 600 g of white asparagus
  • 3 eggs, boiled for 7 minutes, cooled
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • a good red wine vinegar to taste (or lemon if you prefer)
  • salt
  • black pepper

For the egg sauce:

Peel the eggs, cut the in half and remove the egg yolks.

Reserve two halves of the egg whites for decoration and finely chop the rest of the eggs.

In a small bowl whisk the olive oil, some vinegar and a little bit of salt.

Add the chopped eggs,  stir well and taste. Adjust the quantity of the olive oil, vinegar and salt to your liking. The sauce should be slightly acidic and not too runny.

For the seamed asparagus:

Prepare the stems: snap or cut off (a slightly more elegant way) the base of each stalk at the point where it breaks naturally. (*Save the trimmed ends to make a creamy asparagus soup).

Peel the stems using a potato peeler starting from just under the tip all the way down to the bottom. The object is to remove any hard and woody skin.

Tie all the trimmed spears of asparagus with a cooking twine (at the bottom and at the top) into one large or two smaller bundles.

Take a large and tall saucepan.

Pour in about 5 cm of water, season with some salt and bring to the boil.

Stand the asparagus bundles upright in the pan (*put the trimmed off stems around along with peeled potatoes, so they can absorb the flavours-in case you are making a soup later on).

Put the lid on and steam on a low to medium heat for about 20 minutes (prod a spear gently with a knife to check if it’s ready).

When cooked remove the bundles by holding the cooking twine and place in a colander to drain (cutting off and removing the cooking twine).

Neatly arrange the steamed asparagus on a serving dish.

Add the egg sauce: ether spread it across as pictured or on the side, chop and sprinkle around the remaining egg yolk. Season with freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil if you like.

Note: you can always lay the asparagus bundles flat and gently boil them instead of steaming.