Asperges à la Crême

From François Pierre de la Varenne, Le cuisinier françois (Paris, 1651; recipe from Brussels 1698 edition): Cut them [the asparagus] very small, leave nothing but the green, sauté them with fresh butter or melted lard, parsley, green onion, or a bouquet of herbs; after that simmer them very gently with crème fraîche, serve if you like with a little nutmeg.

La Varenne, cook to the marquis d’Uxelles, and his contemporaries pay an attention to vegetables that was to revolutionize the French table. La Varenne liked to teach; in his own words, “valuing particularly those of my Profession, I thought to pass on to them a little of what I know.” In Le cuisinier françois he finds religious fast days (jours maigres) a convenient heading for a dozen vegetable recipes, such as fried artichokes, spinach tart, a ragoût of truffles, and this simple little asparagus in a sauce of crème fraîche. La Varenne seems to have used green asparagus, but white is good, too.