Shaved Asparagus Pizza

Asparagus has never been hard to cook. You could steam it or blanch it or roast it or grill it, or, if you're tired enough of cooking that day, will it to cook itself with the power of your own mind. Oh, you never do that? Huh. Nevertheless, I don't often tackle asparagus on my website, because I usually feel it's all been done before, and what hasn't been done – well maybe it shouldn't be (asparagus sorbet, anyone?). But two years ago, I was in a restaurant that served it shaved raw into ribbons, dressed with only lemon and olive oil, and Parmesan, and this changed asparagus for me. Never had it tasted so green and vibrant; never had it looked so little like logs on a plate, but rather an elegant heap of twisted ribbons. 

It wasn't long before asparagus landed on a pizza. It's true, if I love something I will eventually make a pizza out of it, which might be why my toddler sometimes looks nervous around me. Throwing things onto a pizza dough with cheese doesn't always make something transcendent (somewhere in my husband's future tell-all, there's a story about chewy white-bean pizza), but this one exceeded expectations: tangled and grassy, bubbly and lightly charred, accented with mild bites of spring onion, the raw asparagus wilted from the heat of the baked pizza. It became something to look forward to when the first stalks of asparagus appear after a winter too long, too cold, and too filled with formats of squash and greens, and it never kept you waiting for too long, either. Once you've made (or procured) your pizza dough, you can probably get it on your table in 20 minutes. See? Now you're listening.