My man David Reiss made up this recipe for me because he knows asparagus is my favorite vegetable and he is always flirting with me like that. This recipe has since converted 8 avowed asparagus haters. I am drooling just thinking about it.
You need:
A pound of fresh asparagus
A glass baking dish ( I use a 11 x 7 x 2-inch Pyrex baking dish)
Zest of one lemon (if you don't have a zester, use a fine cheese grater and run the lemon on it)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced in half
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tbls extra virgin olive oil
3 sprigs of fresh thyme (or rosemary, and dry herbs are ok too.)
Sea salt
Fresh ground pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Rub the garlic flat cut side down on to the baking dish. Toss the asparagus in olive oil, lemon zest and chopped garlic and shallot, (in the pan itself is fine, no need to dirty another dish.) Squeeze some lemon juice from half your zested lemon, and salt and pepper to taste. (Don't go too crazy. You can always add more salt.) Bake asparagus for 9 minutes, adjusting time for thickness of asparagus (a minute less for super skinny sprigs, two minutes more for fat sprigs.) Serve hot.
