Oven Roasted Asparagus

It's not a big secret - I'm not a vegetable fan. Don't get me wrong... some green beans fresh from the garden cooked with some melted butter over them are one of life's great pleasures. Corn-on-the-cob from a road side stand is also pretty darn good. Boil it for 5 minutes and brush melted butter and a little salt over it. But other than those two vegetables, I've never been a big fan of green stuff.

As we were paging through one of the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks, we saw a picture of roasted asparagus.

Let me ask you? Doesn't this look good?

That's freshly grated parmesan cheese over the top of the asparagus.

This is one of the simplest recipes we'll ever post. (* = organic, & = local)

Ingredients:

• Asparagus *&
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive Oil *
• Parmesan cheese &

Preheat the oven to 400.

Now, I'll let you in on a little trick. There's a simple way to ensure that your entire asparagus spear is edible. Take the spear in both hands, fingers at each end. Bend and the spear will snap off where it becomes inedible. Do this for each spear and place it in a glass baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the spears and top with salt and pepper to taste.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. While the asparagus is baking, grate some fresh parmesan cheese. (Do yourself a favor - don't use the pre-grated parmesan. A small block of parmesan cheese looks expensive at first blush, but it lasts forever and the taste doesn't compare.)

When the asparagus is done, pull it out and sprinkle the parmesan over the hot asparagus. Slide the dish back into the oven and let it cook another 2 minutes.

That's it! Less than five minutes of preparation and 22 minutes of cooking.