Shaved asparagus pizza

I've cooked asparagus in many ways. Steamed, grilled, roasted -- I pretty much like it all. But this is the first time I've made it the main ingredient on a pizza. And let me tell you, it was a great discovery!

First, start off by shaving the asparagus. No need to break off the woody stems as they'll just serve as your handles. I'd recommend a Y-shaped peeler for this job (which I don't have), otherwise your peeler will likely get a gummed up, as mine did, and then you might be inclined to swear a little bit as you pick bits of asparagus greens out of it.

Once that job's done, and the air in your kitchen is no longer blue, you get busy with the cheese. The original recipe called for mozzarella, but I didn't have any. So I sprinkled some feta on the crust, and added about a quarter cup of parmesan on top. Then, on went the asparagus, and a handful of thinly-sliced green onion. The whole thing was then topped off with some black pepper and a few drizzles of olive oil. (I added a handful of fresh peas too after I snapped this photo. What could more green hurt, right?)

And after about 15 minutes in hot oven, you've got this bubbly, browned masterpiece. This is a really great pizza -- very grassy and light in flavour. Plus, you can feel somewhat virtuous eating it, given the high green quotient (even more so if you substitute some whole wheat flour in your crust).

Shaved Asparagus Pizza (as seen on SmittenKitchen

Makes 1 thin crust 12-inch pizza

1 recipe Really Simple Pizza Dough or your favorite ourchased pizza dough
1/2 pound asparagus
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 pound mozzarella, shredded or cut into small cubes (*I used feta)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Several grinds black pepper
1 green onion, thinly sliced

Preheat your oven to the hottest temperature it goes, or about 500 in most cases. If you use a pizza stone, have it in there.

Prepare asparagus: Holding a single asparagus spear by its tough end, lay it flat on a cutting board and using a vegetable peeler create long shavings of asparagus by drawing the peeler from the base to the top of the stalk. Repeat with remaining stalks and don’t fret some pieces are unevenly thick (such as the end of the stalk, which might be too thin to peel); the mixed textures give a great character to the pizza. Discard tough ends. Toss peelings with olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and be sure to try one -- I bet you can hardly believe how good raw asparagus can taste.

Assemble and bake pizza: Roll or stretch out your pizza dough to a 12-inch round. Either transfer to a floured or cornmeal-dusted pizza peel (if using a pizza stone in the oven) or to a floured or cornmeal-dusted tray to bake it on. Sprinkle pizza dough with Parmesan, then mozzarella. Pile asparagus on top. Bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are browned, the cheese is bubbly and the asparagus might be lightly charred. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with scallions, then slice and eat.

Asparagus soup

I love asparagus. It's really one of the very first signs on spring, and seeing those green stalks at the market remind me of many more good things to come.

I've made a lot of asparagus soup in my day, and this one had much more veggie content than I'm used to. It's good, but not spectacular. Part of the problem, I think, is that I found it quite salty, due to the boxed chicken stock I bought. Usually I rely on my own stock, or stuff I buy from the butcher shop. Both are much less salty and I wish I'd used them in this soup.

Ah well, live and learn.

On to the green stuff....

Onions, celery and leeks all chopped and ready to go. Think the final product might be a bit green?

Cooking down in a bit of olive oil.

Adding the chopped raw asparagus. More green!

And the final product, after a blitz with the handblender. Not as brightly green as I had hoped, and a bit stringy. Next time I'll not be quite so lazy and break out the regular blender.

Creamy asparagus soup

From Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver

Ingredients
800g asparagus, woody ends removed
olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 litres good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs *I didn't do the egg bit
• 8 slices of ciabatta bread
• a knob of butter
• extra virgin olive oil

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

Just before I’m ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don’t have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they’ll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny. Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.