Farmers Market Asparagus Ragout with Polenta

By: Matt Frazier

Erin and I have been to the farmers market plenty recently, but I believe this is the first time we’ve bought something in the morning and cooked it that night.  And really, isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be done? This recipe is adapted from the book Vegetarian Suppers by Deborah Madison, something that we picked up in Barnes and Noble the other day.  Erin was leafing through it, reading out awesome-sounding dish after awesome-sounding dish, so we figured as new vegetarians we might as well buy our first vegetarian cookbook.

What we didn’t realize in the store was that a lot of these recipes are REALLY involved, often referencing other recipes, which reference other recipes, and so on for eight or nine iterations.  Ok, not really.  But one iteration.  This recipe is pretty easy though (with no iterations!), except that it requires a good bit of chopping and some time at the stove.  Definitely more fun with two people, just like see-sawing.

This dish is loaded with vegetables: swiss chard, leeks, carrots, asparagus, snow peas, mushrooms, and herbs. In fact, it’s essentially a pile of vegetables with some sauce on the plate.  But what a delightful pile it is.  Part of what makes it so delightful is that there’s a substantial amount of butter in the dish.  I try not to use much butter  when I cook, but more and more I’m becoming convinced that saturated fat isn’t all that bad for us. Michael Pollan and Mark Bittman both believe it was rather unfairly associated with heart disease when some studies showed a very weak correlation in the 1960’s.  Like all fat though, butter is very calorie-dense, so I wouldn’t eat it at every meal or anything.

I’ll keep this short and get right to the recipe so you can get your (hopefully skinny by now) butt into the kitchen to start chopping.  This meal was fantastic.  Erin and I both loved it. Five cows out of five, no doubt about it.  The beurre blanc sauce and fresh tarragon (Erin’s favorite herb) were the perfect finish.  The vegetable stew was so rich and delicious, you couldn’t have paid me to add meat to it.  I loved the polenta– this was the first time I’d made it the real way– but Erin has never been a polenta fan so she could have done with rice or mashed potatoes instead.  That certainly would speed things up too.  We had a nice unoaked (but still nice and vanilla-y) Chardonnay from the dog-friendly Mutt Lynch winery.  Linus had a small taste and approved, but seems a little concerned over the photo setup.

Last thing before I give you the recipe– all this chopping of vegetables got me to thinking.  My friend and NMA reader (and guest-poster) Pete was telling me about some of his cooking-learning curve woes, since he’s new to it.  So I’m going to put together a list of all the great, easy tricks I’ve learned for preparing individual ingredients (for example, to find out where to snap the ends off asparagus, just bend one until it breaks, then line the others up and cut them to that length).  I’m thinking this will be something that you can print out and refer to whenever you use a new ingredient, so you’ll learn what’s taken me a few years, in a matter of days. So look for that post soon!

Ok here’s the recipe.  It’s not as simple as most of what I make, but trust me, it’s worth it.  Do all the chopping after you start the polenta, since that part takes over an hour to cook but doesn’t require much attention.

Recipe for Vegetarian Asparagus Ragout with Polenta