First of the season asparagus with green garlic and almond breadcrumbs
Bread
I experimented with a couple of different recipes for this contest and quickly realized that cooking with alliums requires a delicate hand. They are quite intense raw, but cook them for too long and they lose their lovely vibrant flavor. But when I happened to find both local spring asparagus and green garlic this week, I wanted to use both ingredients to create a dish with vivid spring flavors. The green garlic here is not really cooked, just warmed in a bath of olive oil, so as not to mute its flavor. The breadcrumbs are inspired by Andrew Carmellini's Crumbs Yo in his marvelous cookbook, Urban Italian. These crumbs have become a pantry staple in my kitchen. Like Carmellini does, I toasted the bread in the oven, but I let it get beyond dry so that it was golden and crisp. After whizzing the bread in the food processor, I added the crumbs and some chopped almonds to the green garlic infused olive oil, letting everything toast further. The crowning touch was some crumbled hard boiled egg and some fresh herbs. I served it all over simply cooked asparagus, using the easy and foolproof method that Amanda wrote about here on food52 last year. The nuts and breadcrumbs add crunch, the garlic delivers a tiny bit of sharpness, and the egg brings a little bit of color and richness that perfectly compliments the tender succulent spears. Bring spring on!
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