Asparagus with VIN Santo Vinaigrette

Here’s my twist on one of my favorite New York City appetizers. I started with Vin
Santo. A flavor for Italian dessert wine made from dried grapes. Mix it with oil, lemon
juice and mustard. Drizzle over cooked asparagus and serve. The flavor is as unique as
New York and just as exciting.

I'm going to start by making my vinaigrette and I'm using a Vin Santo which is an Italian
sweet wine. I'm taking one and a half cups of Vin Santo and reduce it down to a third of a
cup just to enhance that sweet flavor. So Vin Santo now, I need a little lemon juice to sort
of add a little acidity to the dressing. So you want to roll it to release the juices and just
add about tablespoon of lemon juice. And then, we’re going to add a little bit of Dijon
mustard.

Now, the Dijon mustard has a little bit of tang and also it brings the salad dressing
together. So a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a little bit of salt and some freshly ground
black pepper. A very simple dressing but very elegant and sophisticated. Just mix all
those together and add extra virgin olive oil. Just add that right in. Swap that, there we
go. You just want to whisk it as you add any extra virgin olive oil.

Okay, so now the dressing is done. So I just want to take this egg. I just want to slice the
egg and I have a hard boiled egg and basically to make the perfect had boiled egg. You
stick the egg in cold water. Bring it up to boil and then turn the stove off and leave the
egg in the hot water for about 15 to 20 minutes. And then ready to peel it. And I need to
finish off this salad. I’ve lined this serving dish with butter and lettuce. It just makes it
look really pretty, and I'm going to add my asparagus.

I’ve trimmed my asparagus and then I just blanch them in boiling water just about for a
couple of minutes. And then I shock them in ice water just to retain that beautiful crisp
green color.

We just lined the platter and we put the egg right over it. See how pretty the colors are.
And for a little bit of crunch, I’ve toasted and chop some almonds. And now, you top it,
put with the dressing and take a couple of the asparagus spears and the egg. The
asparagus is still slightly crunchy. It's perfect.