Cooking Out Of The Box

One of my most favorite restaurants in Madison is Lombardinos.  It takes Italian cooking to a whole new level, and it is easily one of the top restaurants in the city.

The last few times that we’ve gone to Lombardino’s they’ve had items served “Milanese” style.  This seems to signify that there will be a fried egg on the top.

I know what you are thinking - “What?  A fried egg on top of a salad?  Ewww!”  Well, we thought the same thing (minus the Ewww!).

Turns out, this is darned good.  So one recent night found me in the kitchen with a bag full of nice, crisp, fresh spring greens from the Farmers Market.  And I thought, “Why not?”.  Preparation was simple.  Take the freshest spring greens you can find, toss with olive oil, a touch of Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, add some crisp sliced scallions (bulbs and greens), and then add the Pièce de résistance, an egg, fried in olive oil sunny side up.  Grate some fresh asiago cheese and pepper over the yolk before serving.

Lombardino’s does a similar amazing preparation with asparagus.  Coincidentally, I have some asparagus in the refrigerator as we speak.  Don’t be surprised to see this pop up on the blog soon!

I am always excited to see asparagus season arrive in the spring.  Besides radishes, spinach, and greens in general, asparagus is one of the first real signs that winter really might be over with and that spring is truly here.

Having said that, I don’t really regret it when asparagus season starts to ebb away, either.  It is really easy to OD on asparagus when you are desperate for fresh produce in May and early June.  So, here are just a few things that I did with asparagus this year:

Grilled Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus - This is a marvelous way to prepare asparagus.  It creates a smokey, salty, slightly crunchy dish which adds a lot of interest to the vegetable.  It’s a perfect alternative to simply steaming or sauteeing the vegetable.

Grilled Asparagus Salad - This was one of my favorite ways to prepare asparagus this year.  We simply tossed the asparagus with some garlic, olive oil, balsalmic vinegar, salt and pepper.  While the asparagus grilled, baby greens were tossed with chopped kalamata olives, tomatoes, onions, olive oil, more balsalmic vinegar, salt and pepper.  While we again grilled the asparagus to add to the salad, this wasn’t necessary.  It was, however, really convenient.  The grill was already hot and it avoided dirtying another pan to clean up!

I know that in a month or so I’ll miss asparagus.  But for now, I’m ok with zucchini.  Ask me what I think of zucchini in a month though!