Chef de Bloke presents: Asparago con gnocchi, or something [blog post, by yours truly]

[lproven]

Today's recipe from Chef de Bloke*, your personal guide to Cordon Blur cookery.

It's asparagus season, so here's a great quick tasty dinner. You'll need:

• some fresh asparagus
• gnocchi
• jar of pesto sauce
• cheapo sachet of pitted olives, or failing that, a handful from the jar.

First, put the kettle on

Comments

[camies]

Good recipe, thank you! I shall give it a go. And thanks for the tip about not steaming vegetables over the pasta or pasta equivalent. It is very tempting to do this but having spent an entire morning (or what felt like it) cleaning the cooker recently I do not want to do so again very soon.

[lproven]

You're welcome!

My intent was at least half humorous. It's barely a recipe with essentially 3 ingredients and a jar of sauce... :-)

[fishlifter]

Mmmm, asparagus.

Another top tip, handed on to me some years ago, which I find useful but which you might already know: if you want to avoid the parts of asparagus spears which have gone woody, bend each one till it snaps. Then use the part with the tip on and do whatever you do with vegetable waste (stock, soup, compost etc.) with the other bit. If you don't care, just chop up the whole spear as directed!

[lproven]

I generally eat the woody bits. Even when I'm occasionally left with a mouthful of twiggy straw from a few bits, I just swallow it. I figure, hey, fibre, right?

But yes, that works! :-)

[pndc]

Myself, I come from the Cordon Bennett school of cookery. Or at least I think that's what people are saying during their coughing fit after trying some of it.

That dish almost sounds Dutch, what with asparagus growing like weeds at the moment. Indeed, all manner of fruit and veg is quite cheap, with the bizarre exception of cauliflowers which are usually well over two euros each. I am particularly liking the carrots that taste of carrot, unlike those from back in the UK.

You presumably know that (authentic) pesto is not vegetarian? It does seem to be a product that would be trivial to make without using rennet, but I've yet to encounter veggie pesto that wasn't minging. Perhaps homemade is the way forwards.