Italian Asparagus Salad

It's that time of year - Spargelzeit! Germans run to the grocery stores, street vendors, farmers markets and restaurants to get filled up with asparagus (white asparagus) before time is out, only a few weeks after Spargelzeit begins.

We are not too crazy about white asparagus but we can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement. For that reason, many of our meals recently have been planned around asparagus eating.

We started last weekend off with crepes filled with white asparagus and topped with Hollandaise sauce. Yum. It was our own simplified (and less sweet) version of the recipe we shared last year: Kasierschmarren, Asparagus, and Hollandaise sauce.

That night, we kept going with the asparagus theme and made Italian Asparagus Salad - to her, tomato mozzarella topped with asparagus (no complaint there!) but he says it is truly a different recipe!

To make this salad for two you need:

Asparagus (use as much as you want, we used about 300 g)
A few pinches of sugar
100 g mozzarella (use what seems right!)
200 g tomatoes (again, use as many or as few as you want)
3  Tbs Balsalmic
2 Tbs Olive oil
Fresh basil
1/2 fresh avocado (we left this out)
Salt, pepper

Peel the asparagus and boil in sugar water for about 14 minutes. Remove and pat dry.

Slice the tomatoes and cover with the cheese.



In a bowl or glass, mix the salt, pepper, olive oil, balsamic, and fresh bail (this is basically our Tomato Mozzarella recipe but mixed together instead of put directly on the tomatoes).




Slice the optional avocado and the asparagus into one-half to one inch slices and place on top. Drizzle the olive oil mix on top and done!

It is as easy as that!

Serve with warm bread and enjoy!