Asparagus Tartine With Ricotta and Mint

It is that time of the year again: asparagus season.

I am back to eating asparagus 3 or 4 times a week and just found this way to make it into an appetizer, which I probably served before a main course which also included asparagus. If there was a possibility of coming up with an asparagus dessert (probably not), it would be a mealtime triple play of asparagus!

This is basically a recipe for toast with a topping. It’s called a tartine because that’s an open faced sandwich and sounds way more fancy. You may wonder why anyone would go to the trouble of letting you know about a recipe for toast but I know for sure there’s a whole book with recipes for toast (with another on the way next year), so a recipe here is no big deal.

I like the idea of using ricotta (or goat cheese) so that the other stuff sticks to the toast and doesn’t fall off.

Here’s the step by step:

Get a bunch of asparagus and, after trimming off the tough ends, pan fry it.

Pan-fry the asparagus.

Grab the ricotta and mint. Chop the mint so it’s ready for later.

Chopped mint and ricotta.

While the asparagus is cooking, slice some bread and drizzle it with olive oil.

Slices of bread, ready for the oven.

Toast!

Toast!

After the asparagus is cooked, chop into similar-sized pieces.

Chopped asparagus.

Start with toast, smear on some ricotta and add the asparagus.

Toast, then ricotta, followed by black pepper and asparagus.

Top all that with the chopped mint and the black pepper.

Asparagus Tartine With Ricotta and Mint.

Asparagus Tartine with Ricotta and Mint

Yield: Serves 2
Active time: 10 minutes
Total time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

Kosher salt
8 to 12 stalks asparagus, woody ends trimmed
4 slices toasted hearty bread
Extra-virgin olive oil for drizzling
1/2 cup store-bought or homemade ricotta cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Roughly torn fresh mint leaves

Procedures

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and prepare an ice bath. Add asparagus to pot and cook until tender-crisp, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Drain asparagus and immediately transfer to an ice bath to chill. Let cool for 1 minute. Dry carefully, then roughly chop into disks or batons.

Drizzle toast with olive oil. Spread evenly with ricotta cheese and season with pepper. Top with chopped asparagus and torn mint leaves. Drizzle with more olive oil and serve immediately.

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/05/asparagus-tartine-ricotta-mint-recipe.html