White asparagus with olive tapenade

Ingredients

White asparagus with olive tapenade

• 

  500 g white asparagus
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• ½ lemon
• 25 g butter
• 50 g destoned black olives
• 25 g semi-dried tomatoes
• 1 clove of garlic
• 25 g grated Parmesan cheese
• 5 g fresh basil
• 100 g pastrami
• 100 g mature cheese
• 4 cherry tomatoes
• ¼ head lollo verde lettuce
• salt and pepper

Kitchen tools

• asparagus pan with basket (optional)
• Hand blender with bowl

Preparation method

1. Peel the asparagus with a peeler and trim away the woody lower 3 cm of the spears. Cook the asparagus for 5 minutes in a large pan with plenty of boiling water with 1 teaspoon salt, the sugar, the juice of half a lemon and the butter. Turn off the heat. Leave the asparagus in the pan for approx. 12 minutes, in the water, until they are just cooked.
2. Purée the olives, tomatoes, garlic, Parmesan cheese and basil in the beaker of the hand blender to make a coarse tapenade. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Divide the asparagus over four plates. Arrange the lollo verde, pastrami and shavings of mature cheese on the asparagus. Make two mounds of tapenade on the plate. Garnish with the halved cherry tomatoes

 

4. Tip: Do not peel the asparagus too thin. The skin is fibrous and tastes bitter so make sure you remove it from all around the spears.