Asparagus
When I was younger, I thought there was only one way to cook asparagus: steam it, dress it with butter, and that was that. When I started cooking for myself, that was the first preparation I tried - soon augmented by fresh dill, courtesy of the leftover dill in my refrigerator one summer afternoon. When I began cooking for my then-boyfriend, I added hollandaise to the party in the belief that it would seduce him into eating a vegetable (it worked).
But it took me years to start experimenting with asparagus - roasting it, searing it, cutting it up into stir-fry.
My most recent experiment involved filo dough.
We had some filo left over from a foray (mostly successful) into brik à l’oeuf, a Tunisian fried dumpling. While I was trying to think of what to do with it, my husband (the boyfriend seduced by hollandaise) came home with a pound of Nevat, a delicious goat cheese. The wheels in my head began to spin: we have filo. We have asparagus, and parsley, and now we have this cheese.
I laid the asparagus down on a bed of filo, covered it with chopped onions and parsley, sprinkled it carefully with salt and ground fresh pepper over it. Then I cut pieces of the cheese, trimming the rinds, and laid them over top before rolling the whole thing into a log and wrapping it with another sheet of filo and slipping it into the oven.
It came out warm and golden, perfect and crisp on the outside, with the inside soft: the cheese melted, the asparagus and onions soft and succulent.
Asparagus and Cheese in Filo
- about 15 stalks asparagus, washed, trimmed, and cut in half
- about 1/4 to 1/3 lb Nevat, or a good chevre
- 1 small onion, chopped fine
- 3 tbsp parsley, chopped fine
- salt
- fresh-ground black pepper
- olive oil
- 3 sheets filo dough
Preheat oven to 350F.
Lay 2 sheets of the filo on top of each other on a flat surface. Arrange the asparagus at one end, leaving enough to fold over. Add the onion, parsley, and salt and ground pepper. Drizzle lightly with olive oil. Carefully roll into a log and tuck the ends under. Brush the outside with olive oil, then wrap in the third sheet of filo. Brush the outside sheet with olive oil, cover with foil, and place in oven. Bake for 1 hour, removing foil for last 15 minutes.
Serve with gravy or a tomato-basil sauce.