Ricette con gli asparagi

Better late than never, here are my entries to the event that I host myself.. the 'Fresh Produce of the Month', this month centered on Asparagus!

Definitely quite in season during the past month, I had various occasions to prepare different types of food with this delicious vegetable. I'll present here two dishes: Tortine di asparagi e feta (Asparagus and feta tartelettes) and Asparagi olio e limone (Asparagus with olive oil and lemon).

Tortine di asparagi e feta / Asparagus and feta tartelettes
Steam a few asparagus for ~7 minutes. In the meanwhile, thaw a sheet of puff pastry and fill some tartelette shapes with it. Prepare a mixture of 2 eggs and ~1/2 cup of shredded feta cheese. Add salt, dried oregano and black pepper. When the asparagus is ready, cut it into pieces that can fit the tartelette shapes. Place on top, and cut away the extra pastry dough, so that in the end it just fills perfectly each shape. You can fold a little border of dough over each shape. Bake in the oven at 350 F for about 20 minutes, until golden.
One puff pastry dough sheet was a lot for the six tartelettes I prepared, so I made an extra small cake with the leftovers:
Both the tartelettes and the cake were really good. I was very happy of this quick recipe that I made up based on what was in the fridge. Moreover, this was the first time I used my tartelette pan. It's in silicon, and it worked really well for this. The tartelettes came out very easily from it when they were ready, more beautiful than ever!
Because this dish came out so well, I'm presenting also for the 'Monthly Mingle' event, centered on Hors d'oeuvres and Appetizers, which I'm right on time for! This lovely event was started by Meeta at 'What's for lunch, honey?', but this month it's hosted by Mansi at Fun and food

Here is one last tartelette, shown here to make you feel like trying this recipe out. :)


Asparagi olio e limone/ Olive oil and lemon asparagus
This is the easiest and my favorite way of eating asparagus. To make it, just steam the asparagus for ~10 minutes, and serve them with a sauce made by mixing together with a whisk ~4 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice and salt. Then, sprinkle pieces of parsley leaves on top.. Delicious!
This time I tried a mixture of green and white asparagus. The white asparagus is cultivated without light, and using more UV light. I never tried them before, and knowing that they are supposed to be a delicacy, I decided to buy them. I wasn't too impressed by them. The green asparagus have much more flavor, at least to my taste!