Asparagus with black olive crumbs
Normally we don’t love blanching vegetables, because watery greens aren’t our thing. If you overdo them, they’re squelchy (eewww), but if you don’t cook them for long enough, they have way too much bite and can be fibrous. Also very eewww. We’ve never understood the allure of super-crunchy greens, unless they're actually meant to be served raw. But even we know that absolutely nothing beats a heap of blanched, new season’s asparagus, and we like ours piled with some crisp, golden, olive-y crumbs for a bit of crunchy-salty contrast. You could serve yours with dollops of creamy homemade garlic mayo too if you fancied a rich element and, instead of (or as well as) the asparagus, you could throw green beans and sugar snap peas into the mix too.
We can never eat asparagus without casting our minds back to childhood years, when canned asparagus, commercially cooked to the point of despair, was considered an absolute delight. It generally got rolled out (literally) for asparagus rolls, a quintessential part of mid-century New Zealand culinary tradition. Soft white bread, crusts removed, slathered in butter, with a couple of spears of mushy, limp, canned asparagus rolled inside – they were simple to prepare and felt just special enough for gatherings. They were inevitable at any ‘Ladies, a plate’ local gathering and tasted so much better when served on a doiley-ed plate atop a table lined with butcher’s paper. Perfect. Some ladies-a-platers even added a swipe of mayonnaise or a sprinkle of paprika to zhuzh theirs up. Somehow, the unfortunate colour, swampy texture and suspiciously briny taste of canned asparagus ONLY worked in this scenario and for all we know, probably still does in some corners of our mighty land. We loved asparagus rolls, and they were our only entree to this once exotic vegetable as the fresh stuff wasn’t widely available to the masses. Yay that it is now! It's still a cause for happiness when those first local spears appear at the greengrocers.
SERVES 4-6
4-5 bunches of asparagus, ends trimmed
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
Black olives crumbs
120g (2 cups) coarse fresh sourdough breadcrumbs
125g (1 cup) pitted kalamata olives
60ml (¼ cup) extra virgin olive oil
3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
For the olive crumbs, preheat the oven to 180˚C. Spread the crumbs in a baking dish. Using your hands, squeeze the olives hard over a sink to get rid of as much liquid as possible. Chop the olives coarsely, scatter them over the crumbs in the dish, then drizzle with the oil and scatter over the lemon zest and thyme leaves. Use your hands to mix well, making sure everything is coated with oil. Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring the crumbs occasionally, or until golden and crisp. Cool the crumbs in the dish.
Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Fill a large bowl with iced water. Cook the asparagus for 3-4 minutes or until just tender. Drain well, transfer to the bowl of iced water to cool, then drain well again. Pat the asparagus using kitchen paper to get rid of any excess water. Place the asparagus on a large serving platter, scatter over the crumbs, then drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. Season with freshly ground black pepper, then serve.
