Leave it to Mother Nature to turn beautiful 70° weather in the beginning of the week to 30° just a few days later. Gotta put those shorts back in storage again. I knew it was too good to be true. It's New England, I get it. I've lived here my whole life. But that dusting of snow was uncalled for.
Moving forward, I must say that I didn't think that I was going to like this dish as much as I did. The snow wasn't altering my culinary judgement, it's just that the combinations on this plate seemed a little unconventional to me. Zabaglione is a sweet Italian custard. Granted this recipe used no sugar, but I have never seen zabaglione used for savory purposes. I got the impression that this was Mario's Italian take on the classic Asparagus with Hollandaise.
As in previous posts, I brought some salted water up to a boil and cooked the asparagus until al dente. It was then shocked in an ice bath to stop the cooking.
Next up was to make the vinaigrette. I minced a shallot and added sherry vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. It then gets carefully emulsified with some extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle the oil slowly while whisking vigorously and it shouldn't break and separate on you.
I didn't throw out the pot of water that the asparagus was cooked in because that was going to be used as my double boiler to make the zabaglione. In a bowl, I added egg yolks, Marsala wine, and freshly cracked black pepper, whisking until foamy.
Then the bowl goes over the pot of water. I kept whisking the zabaglione until it thickened substantially which took about ten minutes. Once it was thickened enough, the bowl was then transferred over to an ice bath to get the zabaglione chilled quickly.
As that cooled, I whipped some heavy cream to stiff peaks.
Next, the cream was folded into the zabaglione with some pecorino and more cracked pepper. All of the ingredients then get chilled.
The asparagus was plated with a spoonful of the vinaigrette and a dollop of the zabaglione. More pecorino gets grated over the top.
So what did I think? Wow! What a nice surprise this was. The chilled slightly crisp fresh asparagus tasted amazing when I mixed both the vinaigrette and zabaglione together with each bite. My fiancé and I fought over the last few pieces.
I cut the yield for this recipe in half, simply because of my doubt on whether I'd like it or not. That was a mistake! There I go thinking again. I followed the proportions to the letter, but I could have kept eating more of this and should have made the full yield. I would certainly recommend this dish in place of a boring old salad as a spring starter course for dinner.
There are a few points that I would like to get across before I close off. For one, the recipe calls for a minced shallot to make the vinaigrette, but I would recommend using only half of one. A whole shallot was too overpowering. The vinaigrette also called for prepared mustard. The only kind that I had at home was yellow mustard. While it worked, it really needed Dijon mustard instead. Lesson learned, check your mise en place!
Okay, I've had my fix of asparagus for the time being. It's time for something different. I let my fiancé pick out the next recipe and I'm quite excited to try it. Until next time...
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