Wild asparagus is often paired with cheese sauce in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont, where chef Stefano Secchi of New York City’s Rezdôra often finds inspiration. “When asparagus is coming up, it’s typically still colder at night, and the fonduta is nice and warming,” Secchi says. In this twist on a classic fonduta, Secchi emulsifies the sauce using the salted water from blanching asparagus instead of cream or butter. The heat from the water gently cooks the egg yolks and melts the Parmesan, forming a rich, velvety blanket to coat your vegetables.
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What you’ll need
Large Pot
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Tongs
$21 At Amazon
Blender
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Silicone Spatula
$13 At Amazon
Recipe information
Yield
4 servings
Ingredients
1
3
3½
3
Preparation
Step 1
Cook asparagus in a large pot of boiling generously salted water until dark green and just crisp-tender, about 30 seconds for pencil-thin stalks and up to 2½ minutes for thicker stalks. Using tongs, immediately transfer asparagus to a large bowl of ice water; let sit 30 seconds. Transfer to a kitchen towel and pat dry; arrange on a platter. Measure 3 Tbsp. cooking liquid from pot and set aside in a small bowl.
Step 2
Blend egg yolks, Parmesan, and oil in a blender on low speed, scraping down sides as needed, until well combined. Increase speed to high and, with motor running, gradually drizzle in reserved hot cooking liquid; blend until smooth and emulsified. Immediately pour fonduta over asparagus.
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Reviews (8)
Back to Top3 tbsp of reserved liquid set aside in a bowl before several minutes before blending just doesn't seem right. I'm pulling mine directly from the cooking pot.
David
Maryland
2/12/2023
Something is off. The description refers to this as a "warming' dish but this ended up stone cold. You plunge the asparagus into ice water and then somehow rely on only 3 TBS of cooking liquid to bring the whole plate up to an appetizing temperature? I might try this again but cook the sauce on a double boiler after the blending to at least make it hot. Maybe skipping the ice bath would help too?
Stephanie
Berkeley, CA
4/26/2022
Loved this sauce over asparagus. I don’t think my cooking water was hot enough when added to the yolk-oil-parm mixture, so the Parmesan didn’t fully melt. The flavor was still divine. I’d take this over a hollandaise any day! Both from ease of preparation and flavor. We served it the asparagus with the porcini gnocchi, also from this issue, and the Parmesan fonduta that seeped over and mixed with the brown butter sage sauce was rich heaven.
SpatulaCity123
Los Angeles
3/24/2022