Asparagi con l’Uovo

It’s been five days since we returned to Bologna from Padova.

I’ve been home for the duration of that time … nursing my allergies and trying different combinations of meds to get things under control … especially the sneezing. I think we finally have it figured out. The downtime was a good opportunity to catch up on my Padova photo-processing and work on plans for our next getaway … so not complaining much.

Asparagus is in season now. Since having the asparagus appetizer — garnished with eggs and lemon vinaigrette — when we went to Da Cesari for my birthday lunch, Mui’s been wanting to go back for round two.

With my sneezing finally under control, I agreed to go for lunch today. Mui didn’t lose time making a reservation.

The place was hopping. Not that it was ‘quiet’ when we went there on my birthday. But today was something else, with patron after patron coming through the door and being directed upstairs when the tables on the ground floor filled up quickly.

Anyway, we started out with the asparagus dish, of course. This is a traditional Italian recipe … particularly in the northern regions during spring. There are different preparations, but the lemon vinaigrette version seems to fit with the freshness of spring IMHO. It was just as delicious as last time … and this from someone who doesn’t much care for asparagus. Mui will have to make the dish at home … it is quite a simple one.

Following the rest of our very tasty lunch, we skipped dessert at Da Cesari and went to Gelateria Cavour for a sweet treat. We’ve been trying to check out the place for a while now, but the line is always very long when we walk by … or the place is closed (as is the case on Mondays). That we needed to rectify our Padova ‘gelato oversight’ was a good enough excuse to try again today. As usual, there was a bit of a line, but the soft and creamy gelato was most definitely worth the wait.Read more