Personally, I love this dish at Eastertime. It’s perfect for the season with all of the fresh garden ingredients.
Some Notes:
Pastured Eggs come from chickens that are allowed to roam free. More than just being ‘organic’ they really taste better and contain more nutrients, the yolks are deep gold and orange.
To trim the asparagus, remove the tough fibrous bottom. You can use a knife to cut through the entire bunch at once, but I prefer to do it spear by spear so you can feel where it starts to get tender and snap it at the appropriate point. Also for this recipe you will want to conserve the tips and add them in later as the recipe shows. This is because they take less time to cook than the stems.
Fresh Basket Cheese is available in the Spring at your Italian Market, it’s milky sweet, unsalted and it’s texture is a cross between fresh ricotta and fresh mozzarella. It holds together like mozzarella, but it’s not as meltable. It’s slightly crumbly like ricotta but not nearly as mushy. It can be used in recipes or eaten just as-is. It’s a staple on our Easter table.
The Dry Cured Sausage in this recipe is the one that was made from January’s pig slaughter. It hung in my parent’s basement cantina from the month of January until it was cured enough to be taken down and preserved in oil or vacuum packed. If you don’t have dried sausage hanging in your basement, you can substitute your favorite salami or sopressata or even sub in fresh Italian sausage. Just remove the casing and make sure to cook it thoroughly in the pan.
