Asparagus and bio eggs with ricotta cheese
- Starter
- Medium
- 4
- 1 hour 45 minutes
PT1H45M
This vegetarian starter by Gaetano Trovato is a showcase for top quality eggs. If you cannot find biodynamic eggs, organic eggs can be used instead. Biodynamic farming is an approach where the farm relies solely on itself to produce and feed everything it grows or rears, so the chicken would have been fed only by produce sourced from that farm. To make this dish vegetarian, swap the Parmesan for a similar hard Italian cheese that contains non-animal rennet.
Ingredients
Ricotta pie
- 200g of ricotta
- 4 free-range eggs
- 50g of Parmesan , aged 24 months
- nutmeg
- salt
- extra virgin olive oil
Mimosa egg
- 4 free-range eggs
- 1 tbsp of white vinegar
Asparagus
- 20 white asparagus spears
- 12 asparagus spears
- fleur de sel
- extra virgin olive oil
Beetroot sauce
- 200g of beetroot
- 1g of xanthan gum
To plate
- chives
Equipment
- 4cm round cutter (4)
- Hand blender
- Mandoline
- Cooking thermometer
Method
1
Spread the ricotta to a thickness of 1cm on a kitchen towel and leave to dry in the fridge overnight
- 200g of ricotta
2
Heat a small saucepan of oil to 64°C and carefully add the egg yolks. Cook for 1 hour then leave to cool in the oil
3
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6
4
Season the dried ricotta with salt, nutmeg and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Grease the 4cm pastry cutters and use the ricotta mixture to line the rings, leaving a dip in the middle for the egg yolks. Add a yolk to each ring, sprinkle with Parmesan and bake for 4 minutes
- 50g of Parmesan , aged 24 months
- salt
- extra virgin olive oil
- nutmeg
5
For the mimosa egg, boil the eggs in a pan of water with the vinegar for 10 minutes then refresh in iced water. Once cooled, separate the whites and yolks and pass each part though a sieve. Set aside in separate bowls
- 1 tbsp of white vinegar
- 4 free-range eggs
6
For the beetroot dressing, juice the beetroot and season with salt. Add the xanthan gum and blend with a hand blender until thickened
- 200g of beetroot
- 1g of xanthan gum
7
Heat two saucepans with a little olive oil and sweat down sixteen of the white and all of the green asparagus for 2–3 minutes without colour until softened. Season with fleur de sel. Cut the green asparagus in half lengthways and slice the remaining four white asparagus thinly on a mandoline
- 20 white asparagus spears
- 12 asparagus spears
- extra virgin olive oil
- fleur de sel
8
To serve, create rectangles of egg white and egg yolk on each plate. Add the ricotta pie to the bottom of the plate and arrange the green asparagus above it
9
Place the white asparagus spears on top of the egg white with chive tips in between. Lay the sliced white asparagus to the side of this. Pipe dots of the beetroot sauce down the plate next to the mimosa yolk and serve
- chives
Discover more:
Go to Comments
Asparagus and bio eggs with ricotta cheese
