Chef Alice Waters popularized this novel way to enjoy very fresh asparagus at Chez Panisse, her restaurant in Berkeley. For best results, shave the stalks just before assembling this dish.
¼ cup hazelnuts
1 pound fresh asparagus
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan
Courtesy of Jonathan Waxman, from Italian, My Way, for Al Wadi al Akhdar
Don Ciesielski says: I haven’t fixed this recipe as of yet but intend to soon. However I would like to add something according to a practice we learned and use when eating asparagus and what might be the intention of the contributor, Kumar, of this recipe. If you look closely at the picture of the serving you will notice that the asparagus tips are not shaved but whole. What we have learned is that shaving the first peeled outer skin of the more tough snapped off bottom part of the asparagus, exposes a nice tender inner core that can be consumed rather than discarded. (It’s delicious) The portion above that tougher portion is not that necessary to shave as it is usually much thinner and more tender making it harder to shave. So considering the picture of the salad and what we learned, I might venture to think, and to be so bold to suggest, that Kumar’s intention was to shave the snapped off portion (after removing the very first tougher peeling), maybe a bit of a thicker upper stalk, and keeping the tips whole as pictured. It’s asparagus season here in southern New Jersey and the hundreds of farm markets are loaded with fresh asparagus so I will be trying this tonight or in the very near future. However, based upon reading the recipe, I’m giving this a five star now as I salivate thinking about how tasty it will be. Thanks Kumar
Damber Kumar Gautam says: DELICIOUS
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