Asparagus

Apparently, British Asparagus is now in season! It's a very short season, so make the most of it while you can! As an example of all the wonderful things that can be done with Asparagus, I made a sausage and Asparagus gratin. It's very simple:

Finely chop a medium sized onion. Cut the sausages into roughly 1 inch lengths and mix with half of the chopped onion in a heat proof dish. I like to use whole Asparagus, rather then just the spears, but I think it's best to cut off the woody bit right at the very bottom of the stalks. I then chopped the Asparagus stalks into sections and mixed them in with the sausages and onions. Add some salt, pepper, a splash of olive oil and some herbs (fresh herbs are always best if you have them!), I like to use basil in this kind of dish, but parsley would also work well. Add half a tin of chopped tomatoes and the rest of the chopped onion. Then, cover with thinly sliced, raw potato and a final dusting of salt and pepper, as shown:

Cook this in the over, at 190C for about an hour. After it's been in for about 45 minutes, I like to take it out and add some grated cheese to the top, but this is optional.

OK, maybe I need to work on my presentation, but I'm not a professional chef (poor excuse) and I can assure you that it was very tasty!