Balsamic Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus is one of my favorite vegetables, normally I pan fry it but I decided to try roasting it since I have been doing that lately with most vegetables. This asparagus turned out beautifully. One thing to keep in mind is that the quality of asparagus varies greatly in stores. The best asparagus is on the smaller side, the smaller, younger stems are more tender and taste a lot better. The larger the asparagus the more "woody" and tough it is going to be. Also, it should be pretty bright green with darker purply tops. The photos below are some examples of how good asparagus should look.

This is how the asparagus would look

Here is the big bunch

 This recipe is really simple and easy to modify. If you don't like balsamic vinegar try using lemon pepper seasoning or some other blend that you like.

Enjoy!

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus
1 lb or more Fresh Asparagus
2 - 3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Fresh Ground Pepper
Olive Oil (approx 1 tablespoon or less)
Snap and rinse the asparagus and lay in a single layer on a large cookie sheet. Sprinkle with spices, oil, and balsamic vinegar and toss to coat. Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes until some of the asparagus starts to brown slightly and stick to the pan.

Linguine with Roasted Asparagus in a Tomato Lemon Sauce

I've been getting over a cold for the past few days and haven't felt like doing much, but I am finally starting to feel better so I will be cooking yummy things again! I made this dish last week though, the idea of roasting asparagus and then adding it to pasta popped into my head at work and I decided I had to try it since asparagus was conveniently on sale at Publix (also, I love asparagus and will use any excuse to eat more of it). Lemon sets off the flavor of the asparagus nicely, so I decided to use some fresh lemons in the sauce. This came out really excellent, but it is quite sour so if you don't enjoy sour food that much use less lemon. I forgot to take a picture of this before I ate all of it but it is really pretty and colorful.

Enjoy!

Linguine with Roasted Asparagus in a Tomato Lemon Sauce

½ lb. Whole Wheat Linguine (Ronzoni’s brand is the best I have tried so far)

2 lb. Asparagus

4 Fresh Tomatoes

1-2 Lemons zested and juiced (depends on how sour you like your food)
1 tablespoon Sugar

1 tablespoon Flour

1-2 teas. Lemon Pepper seasoning

Salt to taste

Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

Olive Oil

Asiago Cheese grated

Snap the base of the asparagus off and discard it (so that you only use the tender part), then snap again in half so that the pieces aren’t too big when in the pasta. Place the asparagus onto a large cookie sheet and toss with lemon pepper seasoning, pepper, salt, and olive oil. Roast at 425 for about 20 minutes or until tender (make sure it doesn’t get too soft, the asparagus should still hold its shape). Then roast the whole tomatoes with a little olive oil and salt and pepper for about 25 minutes at the same temperature until the skin of the tomatoes starts to crack and turn brown. Cool tomatoes slightly then remove skin and place the skinned tomatoes in a bowl and mash up slightly (so you don’t end up with huge tomato pieces in the pasta). Mix flour in with the lemon juice to form a paste and heat a large skillet to medium or medium low heat and place some of the tomato juice (from the bowl of roasted tomatoes) into the skillet with the lemon paste. (Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions.) Cook until the flour begins to thicken the sauce then add in the rest of the tomatoes and cook until slightly thickened. Add in asparagus as well as the lemon peel and sugar and cook some more until the sauce is thick enough to coat pasta and then toss in the pasta. Serve with grated asiago cheese on top.