Nibbling while Rome Burns

As the stock market melted down further today, Grandma and I did our usual weekly shopping--same time, same day of the week--and the stores had only half the usual shoppers. Did they decide to stay at home and not buy food? Was it a citizen protest?

Ironically, lobster tails (Australian) and asparagus were on sale. I made this dish of roasted garlic, tomatoes, asparagus, and lobster with pasta:

1 head of garlic, trimmed and wrapped in foil

4 plum tomatoes, quartered and tossed with olive oil

1 pound asparagus, all tough stalks discarded, and cut in 2-inch lengths

Shrimp or lobster

Pasta for two, cooked and drained

Lemon juice

Fresh oregano and thyme

Salt and pepper

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Put in foil-wrapped garlic.

Ten minutes later, place tomatoes on baking sheet and add to oven. Roast 20 minutes without turning, until slightly black and shriveled.

Add asparagus to pan and roast for a further 10 minutes.

Add shrimp or lobster and roast for a few minutes until done.

Squeeze out garlic into a serving bowl. Mash with lemon juice, herbs, salt, and pepper. Mix in cooked pasta and roasted vegetables and shellfish. Season to taste.

***

We had this with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate. And martinis and sauvignon blanc. I can't shake a kind of doomsday feeling--like we should have had beans just in case.

Gnocchi and Asparagus

We never take food home from a restaurant--but Dad couldn't finish his wonderful gnocchi with tomato cream sauce from his Italian lunch, so we finished it for dinner. Wow.

Asparagus is perfect and cheap right now, so I made it my favorite way.

Cold Asparagus with Curry Mayonnaise

2 pounds asparagus

Break off tough stems. Peel stems below tips if very thick. Cook until barely tender. Drain and chill.

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup yogurt

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon curry powder

Salt to taste
Lemon juice and zest to taste

Mix remaining ingredients to make a smooth dressing. Arrange chilled asparagus on serving plate and spoon dressing over.

Asparagus Salad Pasta

Not pasta salad -- salad pasta. Pasta with salad in it. I like noodles a lot, but I like them better cut with greenery and fiber. I love Thai and Vietnamese noodle dishes with lettuce in them, and I wondered if I could make a good Americanized noodle with green leaves. So I made this, which was really, really good.

Beat one egg in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Then beat in a bunch of olive oil. Really -- up to 1/3 cup.

Cut one bunch asparagus into 3" lengths (2 to 3 pieces per stalk), toss or spray with olive oil, and roast at 500 degrees for 6 to 10 minutes, until sizzling, cooked through, and just beginning to color. Toss in with the egg and oil.

Make a small amount of pasta -- maybe 1/3 of a standard box. I used linguine snapped in half. Drain and immediately toss with the asparagus, egg, and oil. The pasta should be hot enough to cook the egg.

Add salt to taste, a bunch of pepper, and about 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg -- just the tiniest bit.

Add 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice and a few shreds of zest.

Toss in a few ounces of grated Parmesan and/or Asiago cheese.

Mix in several large handfuls of mixed small greens or red romaine torn into small pieces. It should wilt slightly.

Serves 2 as a small main dish.

Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus was a vegetable I learned to love all on my own, as an adult. When I was a kid I always had to choke it down with my nose plugged (actually plugged -- was I ever sly about that, or was it just obnoxious?), and now I mourn all those missed asparagus meals.

When I first lived on my own I would buy one new vegetable each time I went to the grocery store. I could be something exotic, or just something I'd never cooked by myself. Asparagus was one of my early conquests, and the first recipe I tried is still my favorite.

Roasted Asparagus

Heat oven to 500 degrees. This is a good side dish to serve with pizza or broiled fish or something else requiring a very hot oven, because it feels wasteful to get the oven so hot for something so quick and easy.

Snap or cut the bottoms off of one bunch of asparagus. For this recipe, the thinner the stalks are, the better. Spread on large rimmed baking sheet and toss with two teaspoons olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Roast for 5 to 9 minutes or until the tips are crackly and brown but not burnt.

Toss with lemon juice, pepper, and a little more salt. The asparagus is best after about 15 minutes, slightly above room temperature. The tips take on a sort of candied quality that is rather amazing.

The tray in the picture is a recent gift from Brittany, the world's greatest houseguest. She bought it in Sweden.

Closely Read Asparagus Bearnaise

You know the Deconstructed Menu Item conceit? I guess it's a few years old now. This is where a pretentious gourmet chef will serve, say, a Deconstructed Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, which will be candied grapes, roasted sugarcane rolled in chopped peanuts, and sauteed wheatberry triangles, or something.

The idea is consistent comedy gold. I like to present Lawson with dishes like Deconstructed Spaghetti alla Carbonara (a box of uncooked spaghetti, a package of bacon, an unbroken egg) and Deconstructed Cat Vinaigrette (a bottle of vinegar, a bottle of olive oil, and the cat). The joke never, ever gets old.

All this is by way of introducing my dinner last night.

Lawson has been working absurd hours -- the contract he works under is up for rebid -- so he hasn't been around for dinner much lately. I believe that dinners cooked and eaten alone should be a little weird. (I think this comes from you, because we would always eat lighter, stranger dinners when Dad was out of town. Also, you once told me that when you were first married you just ate tortillas and cheese when he was gone.) Sometimes weird means mildly embarrassing comfort food, like pieces of cheddar cheese topped with powdered cumin. Sometimes weird means mismatched dishes: on Thursday I ate a spinach omelette accompanied by sauteed Swiss chard, because spinach and Swiss chard are two of my favorite things and I wanted them both. Generally I wouldn't serve two dark green leafy things at the same time, right? But mostly weird just means unbalanced, like one elaborately sauced vegetable and nothing else.

Anyway, yesterday I wasn't very hungry, but I wanted to eat the asparagus from the fridge. And I'd never made hollandaise or bearnaise sauce. I'm not sure I've even had them as an adult. You must have made hollandaise a few times when I was young, and that's the only time I've ever had it. So I wanted to try it, not least because of its reputation for difficulty.

But I was out of lemons. No citrus, period. So instead I invented this, which contains all the components of asparagus bearnaise but is infinitely more refined and witty. The recipe is doubled here, but you should halve it for solitary authenticity.

Steam until tender and arrange on two plates:
-One bunch asparagus

Top each plate with:
-One egg, fried, over medium
-Olive oil drippings from pan
-Salt
-Pepper
-Chopped fresh tarragon

Imagine:
-Lemon wedges

It was tasty.