Ingredients
- – A large bunch of asparagus
- – 100g (one stick) butter*
- – 100g (4 oz.) freshly grated parmesan cheese*
- – 4 eggs
- – Salt
- – Pepper
Directions
- Cook your trimmed asparagus in well-salted water, using one of the standard methods (see below) until just tender—removing them from the heat slightly less tender than you like to eat them, as they will continue to cook as you proceed with the next steps. Let the asparagus stalks drain in a colander. (NB: Do not refresh with cold water; you want the asparagus to stay warm.)
- While the asparagus are draining, take a skillet big enough to hold all your eggs and melt the butter in it. Fry the eggs gently in the butter. Regulate the heat to make sure the butter does not darken or (God forbid!) burn. (Although unorthodox, I like to add just a bit of olive oil to the butter to help prevent this.) As they eggs cook, spoon the hot butter over the whites of the eggs to help cook them on top. Season to taste. The eggs are done when the whites are just set and the yolk still liquid.
- While the eggs are cooking (they will only take a minute or two) arrange the asparagus on a heated serving platter. The traditional pattern is to arrange the asparagus stalks in a ‘star’, with the tips all pointed towards the center of the platter, which should, of course, be round and large enough to accommodate this arrangement. Personally, I find this a bit fussy (and the asparagus tends to lose heat this way) so I simply line them up more or less neatly on an oval platter.
- Then sprinkle the grated cheese, which you should grate at the last moment to retain its full flavor, all over the asparagus. It should look like a heavy dusting of snow that covers the asparagus more or less entirely. Then place your eggs on top of the asparagus and spoon the melted butter remaining in the skillet all over. The eggs and hot butter should melt the cheese entirely.
- Serve immediately, as this dish is at its best when it is still nice and warm.
