Asparagus cream
( Crema di asparagi )

Asparagus cream recipe

Preparation and cooking

• - Cut the ends of asparagus which are always tough.
• - Steam them.
  Below you can read how to steam your asparagus easily even if you don't have an asparagus cooker.
• - Let your asparagus cool.
• - Cut the tips of your asparagus and put apart.
• - Whisk the rest.
• - Chop your onion.
• - Let it brown in olive oil in a skillet on very low heat.
• - Add first your whisked asparagus and then ricotta cheese.
  Stir accurately on low heat to amalgamate.
• - Season to taste with salt.
  Continue cooking, stirring now and then, until the right consistency according to the use you 'd want to do.

Just before serving

• - Turn off the stove and sprinkle with dried parsley.
  Stir accurately.
• - Your asparagus cream is ready!

Note

Tips

• - Asparagus cream is a typical spring dish. In fact they are in season between April and May in Italy. In the remaining months Italians buy them frozen or imported from Chile or other producer countries. I think it is better to eat vegetables in season because they are richer in nutritional properties.
• - Ordinarily, I prepare this asparagus cream with common asparagus. It does not worth using more expensive asparagus.
• - Use green asparagus to make asparagus cream. You don't peel them and your recipe will be quicker.
• - I suggest you not to boil your asparagus but steam them to have the best result.
• - To steam your asparagus if you don't have the asparagus cooker.
  Combine asparagus in bunches and tie.
  I use the same string in which they usually are sold.
  Then I pour three or four inches of water in the steamer.
  Then I put the asparagus stalks in water directly.
  I close with the basket turned upwards as if it were the cover.
  Cooking time depends on many factors including the thickness of the asparagus themselves.
• - Keep asparagus cream in the refrigerator up to 2 or 3 days.

Menu planning

• - This asparagus cream is very tasty to accompany pasta, rice, fish, meat and salami.
• - Test our asparagus cream in these ways:
• • - spread it on the bread to make tasty Italian canapés, such as our assorted canapés with fish. You'll be able to find the link in the next paragraph.
  • - spread it on bread slices and complete your sandwich with low-fat salami such as breasola for your lunch at work
  • - serve it in little individual bowl to accompany fish or meat dishes, not stew dishes!
  • - dress your boiled rice or make a tasty risotto
  • - dress your boiled pasta, eventually enrich your dish with a knot of butter. It tastes fantastic!

Useful links for this recipe

• - Here's the recipe for assorted canapés with fish.

Healthy eating

• - Asparagus is a vegetable rich in nutritional properties. Here are its main chemical compounds and their effects on our organism.
• - First of all I report the asparagine that is an amino acid essential to produce the proteins needed in our body.
• - Then I remember the rutin which strengthens the capillaries. Rutin is a flavonoid glycoside, a complicated name well known only by chemists and nutritionists. Common people call the rutin vitamin P. Rutin, also present in red wine, buckwheat and in the peppermint is important because it strengthens the capillary walls and reduces the symptoms of bleeding in hemorrhoids and hematomas.
• - Another important compound of asparagus is folic acid also known as vitamin B9. To evaluate the importance of this vitamin I remember you that it is strongly recommended to pregnant women, even before their pregnancy, to take at least 0.4 mg of folate to prevent birth defects in the fetus.
• - I complete the list of compounds present in asparagus with manganese, vitamin A and B, phosphorus, calcium, magnesium and potassium.
• - Asparagus is poor in sodium.
• - This explains why asparagus has a diuretic effect that may be beneficial for those suffering from gout, kidney stones and rheumatism.
• - Moreover, the asparagus is very low in calories and that should interest a lot who is always on a diet. Think: few calories and diuretic effect!
• - A curiosity: some compounds of the asparagus, after being metabolized, are expelled in the urine giving it a particular odor, very pungent. This phenomenon is not found in the whole population and must be attributed to the presence of sulfur
• - The proportion of fiber in this recipe is rather low. Only 1.6g compared to the recommended daily intake that is 30g. This depends on the great waste of asparagus, only 52% is the edible portion of those normally grown in open fields. So if you buy 500g then you use only half.
• - All my recipes can be made without salt, their taste derives from the combination of aromatic herbs and spices. It's important for people who have to follow a low salt diet.

Loretta