Asparago

A vegetable much loved by Italians, asparagus is generally only eaten in season so that its natural wild flavour can be enjoyed. Asparagus is a shoot which, if allowed to grow to maturity, blooms into a wonderful delicate lace-like head that can be used in floral arrangements. When the tip of the shoot emerges from the earth, it is cut at its base with special long knife, leaving about 15 cm (6 inches) of tender edible shoot attached.

The regions where asparagus is mostly cultivated are Emilia-Romagna, the Veneto and Piedmont, but there are some smaller areas around Vesuvio in Campania. There are three main types of asparagus grown and enjoyed in Italy, the white, the purple and the green. The white variety, Bianco di Bassano, is derived from the German tradition and grows in the Veneto. Every year the restaurants in the pretty town of Bassano del Grappa on the Piave River compete to present the most original recipe, with the public as the jury. Purple asparagus is called argenteuil and is cultivated in Campania, from which it also takes its Italian name of Napoletano, while the green variety is grown in Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna. This is especially tasty and tender and has a dark green tip fading to white at the base.