Faster Than You Can Cook Asparagus
Manet, Caesar Augustus, and four ways to cook the spears in your fridge.
Letter from the Kitchen
Local asparagus has a short window. A few weeks in spring, then it disappears back underground to make you wait a whole year for the next round.
So I’ve been giving some time to it this week. And the more I looked, the more I found a vegetable with a surprising past. People have been gathering it for thousands of years.
The Romans were a little obsessed. Caesar Augustus was fond of the expression “faster than you can cook asparagus” — his way of telling someone to hurry up. The French later called it the Food of Kings; Louis XIV had it grown year-round so he’d never have to go without.
My favorite story comes from 1880. A collector named Charles Ephrussi commissioned Édouard Manet to paint a bunch of asparagus for 800 francs, then paid him 1,000. Manet painted a second canvas — a single spear — and sent it over with a note: “There was one missing from your bunch.”
That little painting still hangs in the Musée d’Orsay. The “Bunch of Asparagus” hangs in the Wallraf-Richartz Museum.
Not bad for a vegetable that spends most of its year waiting underground for spring.
This week is asparagus — its history, four ways to cook it, and the dishes worth making before the window closes.
Last Week, You Answered
The Middle Wins
Last week I asked — thin spears or fat ones? Pick one.
You were clear, and you mostly agreed on what you don’t want.
Almost nobody voted for the extremes. The very thin ones are spindly — they avoid the fork, and go limp the second they hit the heat. The very fat ones can turn woody and stringy toward the base. What most of you wanted was the middle: a spear with enough body to hold its bite.
Here’s the interesting part. Thin and fat asparagus aren’t from different plants, and one isn’t younger than the other. They come from the same plant. A spear’s thickness comes down to the age and vigor of the crown underground and where the bud sits — not the age of the stalk you’re holding. An established, well-fed plant throws thick spears; as a bed gets older or tires out, the spears come up thinner.
So if you’ve got a bunch of pencil-thin spears and a bunch of fat ones, you don’t have two ingredients. You have one, each needing to be cooked two slightly different ways. The thin ones want a fast, hot minute. The fat ones want a little more time, and sometimes a snap or peel of the lower third.
Two recipes that work across the range:
Risotto with Fresh Asparagus →
Join Me at the Table
Father’s Day Masterclass: Tortillas & the Taco Bar
If you’re still working out Father’s Day, here’s one that ends with everyone at the counter eating tacos they pressed themselves.
Sunday, June 21. Hands-on, start to finish.
It starts with the corn — four colors, blue, yellow, red, white — nixtamalized and pressed into fresh tortillas. Each one cooks a little differently, and you taste as you go. Then the bar:
Fish tacos with roasted tomatillo salsa
Slow pork with mango salsa
Roasted cauliflower with romesco
Guacamole, ground by hand in the molcajete
It’s about ten days out, with one more newsletter between now and class day. If it’s on your list, this is the moment to grab a stool.
View Dates & Book Your Stool →
This class is limited to 8 people, and these fill up fast.
The Podcast Hook
Russ Willenbring · Produce Acres — on the farm - photo Ashley Nathe
He Skips the Pesticides on Purpose
Tomorrow, Episode 7 goes live: Russ Willenbring of Produce Acres, who grows some of the best produce I’ve cooked with.
Here’s the reason to listen. Russ doesn’t use pesticides. He feeds his plants a specific blend of micronutrients, so they grow strong enough to handle pests on their own — the idea being that a healthy plant defends itself.
You can’t talk about great asparagus without talking about how it’s grown.
Friday, June 12 · 7:30 AM — Ep 7 · Russ Willenbring: The Secrets Behind Extraordinary Produce (tomorrow)
Friday, June 26 · 7:30 AM — Ep 8 · Maddie Jensen: Inside Eversharp: Knives, Craftsmanship, and Community
New episodes every other Friday.
What’s Happening in the Kitchen
Off the Studio, Onto the Farm
Most of my episodes are recorded interview-style — the two of us talking over Ecamm, close to a video call. Russ’s was different. Filmed live, on location, almost exactly a year ago. I spent much of this week on the final edits.
Big thanks to Sophia Zimmerman, marketing manager for the Minneapolis Farmers Market, for her camera work — she's the one who got both us and Russ's beautiful farm on camera.
The rest of the summer, Mark and I are shooting farmers-market recipes built around whatever’s at its peak that week. A lot of them land in the MM-Green category — not high in starch, no added fat, sugar, or preservatives — and they’re going into the cookbook as it comes together.
The Skill: The New Basics
Four Ways to Cook Asparagus
The Quick Win
Roast a bunch this weekend. Heat the oven to 425°F, trim the woody ends, toss the spears with your everyday extra-virgin olive oil, Kosher salt, and pepper, and roast for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on thickness. That’s it. The high heat concentrates the sweetness and browns the tips, and it’s hard to get wrong.
Once roasting feels easy, here are the other three I lean on, and when I reach for each:
Roast — 425°F, 10–15 min. Deepest flavor, browned tips. Finish with lemon zest, Parmesan, or toasted almonds.
Grill — medium-high, 4–6 min. Char and smoke. Lay spears across the grates or use a basket. Finish with romesco or crumbled feta.
Blanch — 1–3 min in salted water, then straight into ice water. Keeps the color bright and the bite crisp. Perfect for salads and platters. Finish with lemon vinaigrette or shaved Parmesan.
Sauté — medium-high, 4–6 min, cut into 2-inch pieces. Fastest weeknight option. Finish with garlic, shallots, or a splash of white wine.
Side dish, I roast. Salad or platter, I blanch. Entertaining outside, I grill. Weeknight in a hurry, I sauté. Same vegetable, four ways — pick by how much time you’ve got.
The Most Common Mistake
Overcooking — usually by a minute, right at the end. Asparagus keeps cooking after it leaves the heat, so the spear that looks perfect in the pan goes limp on the plate. Pull it a touch early, while there’s still a little snap in the center. You’re trading thirty seconds of patience for the difference between bright green and gray.
One Tool Worth Having
A peeler — specifically the Dreamfarm Sharple. Remember those fat spears that go woody at the base? A quick pass down the lower third turns them tender, no waste. The Sharple sharpens itself, and the blade tucks away safely when it’s stored. I reach for it constantly, and it just works.
Recipe Spotlight
Lemon Ricotta Asparagus & Snap Pea Tart
This one is MM Blue.
The Soul
Late spring gives you asparagus, snap peas, and the first real herbs, all at once. This tart puts all three on one plate while they’re at their peak — ricotta and lemon under beautiful green, the kind of thing you eat slowly on the veranda with a glass of vino.
The Bridge
The base is the keeper. Once you’ve made it, treat the top as a moving target — asparagus and snap peas now, tomatoes and zucchini in July, whatever the market’s giving you. Same tart, all season.
The Mediterranean Edit
This Week I’m Loving…
Two tools to help roast asparagus right — one that does the cooking, one that holds it.
Appliance
Breville Smart Oven
I use my Breville several times a week, mostly for roasting and broiling vegetables. It heats fast and evenly, which is exactly what a tray of asparagus needs — hot, even, no fuss. For small-batch roasting, it’s become the appliance I go for before the big oven.
Bakeware
Nordic Ware Quarter Sheet Pans
These fit the Breville exactly, which is the whole point. When I’m roasting asparagus for two, I don’t want a half-sheet with spears rattling around one corner. The quarter sheet holds a single layer, browns evenly, and goes straight from oven to table.
Cookbook Chronicles
A Couple, Some Pasta, and a New Shape
Last weekend was a private ravioli class for an engaged (as in getting married) couple. It was a good one. Later in the weekend, I got pulled into a couple of projects of my own: elegant Farfalle, and Fagottini — a little stuffed pasta, new to me, shaped like a pasta pyramid.
There’s something wonderful about two people learning to make pasta together.
The cookbook picks up shapes like the Fagottini as I go.
Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
Before You Go
Prep First, or Wing It?
Next week is all about mise en place — everything measured, chopped, and lined up before the heat goes on. So, to set it up:
Do you set up your mise en place before you cook, or figure it out as you go? Be honest.
Reply or drop it in the comments. I read every one.
Until next Thursday — keep a good olive oil on the counter and don’t be afraid to use it.— Chef Laura
You taught me mise en place. I thought multi tasking while cooking was my super power but no. I have learned the value of mine en place not only for the finished product but my enjoyment of the process from start to finish. So much easier and less stressful!