My dad always said that everything was better with cheese on it.
He was right about asparagus with cheese!
Asparagus is one of the first vegetables of spring and it is good to eat when it is raw in salads, grilled, roasted with tomatoes,, sauteed with bacon, and especially when it is covered in cheese!
We got asparagus from a farmer we know on the other side of town. He only has asparagus for a few weeks in the spring, so we eat it all the different ways we can think of and this is our kids’ favorite way to cook it.
When you pick asparagus, you want to look for bright colors and closed tops, like the shoots on the right in the photo below. The ones on the left still taste okay, but the top has started to become a flower and it gets bitter tasting when that happens.
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees F. Drizzle 1/2 teaspoon olive oil over the asparagus, just enough to make it shiny. Lay it out in one layer on a sheet pan and top with 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, or whatever cheese you like best. Make sure your cheese layer is even and thin so that it is all done at the same time.
Put the cheese-covered asparagus in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes, but check every 2 minutes, until the parmesan cheese just starts to turn golden and the asparagus is sizzling. If you have big fat asparagus shoots, it will take longer to cook than the skinny asparagus shoots I got from the farm.
This is a good side dish to serve next to chicken or fish, or have it for breakfast is on a piece of whole wheat toast and scrambled eggs!
What will you do with the first veggie of spring?
Share your creations with us and we may share them with the world!
