Marco Canora’s A Good Food Day is all about making healthy, tasty choices. I figured for the sake of the new year and my new 2015 figure, this would be a strong start to clean eating (at least until February).
Like most home cooks, I gravitate toward recipes that are easy and quick – and if it’s somewhat healthy, that’s a bonus. The recipe I chose, roasted asparagus and lemon with chunky pesto, was so perfect it could double as a Just Five recipe.
You start by roasting asparagus in olive oil, salt, pepper and thinly sliced lemon. Once it’s out of the oven, finish it with a pesto, sans olive oil. For me, it turned out delicious. The cheese in the pesto began to melt as soon as it was sprinkled over the asparagus, so each bite showcased every flavor: bright basil, pine nuts, lemon, cheese and the asparagus. It looked pretty too, like something I could serve to friends and family. Plus, it’s a technique that could work with a variety of vegetables, including Brussels sprouts or broccoli.
Other recipes in the book have you roast a vegetable and finish it with something to make it more of a fully realized dish, not just a side. Consider the roasted broccoli with hazelnuts and pecorino, or the roasted carrots with millet and mint-pistachio pesto, both of which sound like they’d fit into my cooking repertoire nicely. Other, more robust dishes, such as the Japanese chicken and rice soup or the wild salmon in parchment with olives, fennel and lemon, make for easy, good-for-you meals I actually want to eat.
Roasted asparagus and lemon with chunky pesto
Serves 4
1 bunch medium asparagus
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 lemon half, cut into thin slices, ½ reserved for serving
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (3-inch) chunk Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
2 Tbsp. pine nuts
½ cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil.
Trim the asparagus by holding each stalk horizontally and bending until the tough, woody end snaps off. On the baking sheet, toss the asparagus with the olive oil, lemon slices, and salt and pepper to taste. Roast until the asparagus is tender and the lemon slices are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.
While the asparagus is roasting, use the tines of a fork to crumble the Parmesan into small nuggets, about 2 tablespoons total. Pile the cheese, pine nuts, and basil together on a cutting board and chop until they’re well combined but still chunky.
Transfer the roasted asparagus and lemon slices to a serving platter, add the chunky pesto, and toss together. Squeeze the juice of the remaining lemon half and top with a drizzle of olive oil.
Reprinted with permission from Clarkson Potter. What’s your go-to healthy dish that’s not “health food”? Tell us in the comments below for a chance to win a copy of Marco Canora’s A Good Food Day.
This article appears in January 2015.
