Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Parmesan

I'm super-duper excited to introduce you to a very special guest today. And no, it's not Maddie with the summer rolls recipe, not yet--though I am working on her, I promise.

It's this pan:

I am a good pan!

This rimmed baking pan, which is part of the USA Pan series. In sum: it is a beast. I simply love it, and I love the cookies sheet and also the muffin tin too. The USA Pan folks sent me all of this amazing, non-teflon non-stick bakewear (typo--but I left it because it made me picture myself wearing one) and although I have prided myself on using whatever rusty old pans in my snobby anti-snob way (What-ever!), I am now fully converted to the amazingness that is the USA Pan. It weighs, like, a million pounds (so don't drop it on your toe). Plus, nothing sticks to it. Ever. And everything browns perfectly--cookies, potatoes, muffins, veggies--becoming neither flabby nor burnt. And did I give you the link already? Of course I did.

Okay. Roasted Asparagus with Lemon and Parmesan. In short: yum. I mean, it's sort of ridiculous to do anything to asparagus, because it's so crazy good already, but this is the kind of recipe I pull out when we're pretty far into the season, and the kids are kind of hitting their limit of steamed asparagus with dip, which is what I make for a solid month before moving along. And they're just crazy good: burnished golden and just a little unctuously cheesy, just a little bracingly lemony, simultaneously rich and refreshing, tender and still crisp. Perfect. The kids and I ate them all in about 45 seconds ("Daddy doesn't love them as much as we do," is how we seemed to justify the omission of saving any for Michael), and Birdy declared, "If I were an octopus with opposable thumbs, I'd give it 8 thumbs up." Does it get any better than that? I mean, assuming there are no centipedes in the house.

Roasted Asparagus with Parmesan and Lemon

Serves 1-4
Active time: 5 minutes; total time: 17 minutes

If there were someone you knew who didn't like asparagus, this might be one of those conversion experiences. I mean, if you don't like something that's roasted with cheese on it, you it just might be a lost cause.

1 bunch of asparagus (I like the nice thick ones)

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon kosher salt

½ cup freshly grated parmesan

Juice of ¼ of a lemon

Heat the oven to 450.

Wash the asparagus, trim or snap off the bottoms, then dry them briefly on a dish towel.

Toss them with the olive oil and salt and roast them until they are starting to color and seem mostly tender when pierced with a knife--around 10 minutes (thinner ones may take less time, so you might want to check them at 5).

Sprinkle the cheese over the asparagus, toss again, then roast another 2 minutes until the cheese has turned into a kind of molten golden coating.

Squeeze the lemon over it, taste for salt and lemon, and serve.

Have you noticed how phallic the spring is? Everything shoving all tumescently out of the ground, the trees all smelling vaguely jizz-like? I see why it's the season of lovin'.

I dry the asparagus briefly so they won't repel the oil.

Oiled and ready to roast. I like the pan so much that this photo fills me with affection.

Roasted and sprinkled with cheese. If that doesn't look to you like it's going to be good, then it probably won't be. Me? I am personally salivating. There are probably no other ways to salivate.

Stock footage of Ben juicing lemons.

Ta da! 

I'm surprised any of these are in focus. We were a blur of devouring. 

And then we had smoothies after, for the main course. What-ever.