Asparagus with Vin Santo Vinaigrette

Asparagus with VIN Santo Vinaigrette Here’s my twist on one of my favorite New York City appetizers. I started with Vin Santo. A flavor for Italian dessert wine made from dried grapes. Mix it with oil, lemon juice and mustard. Drizzle over cooked asparagus and serve. The flavor is as unique as New York and just as exciting. I'm going to start by making my vinaigrette and I'm using a Vin Santo which is an Italian sweet wine. I'm taking one and a half cups of Vin Santo and reduce it down to a third of a cup just to enhance that sweet flavor. So Vin Santo now, I need a little lemon juice to sort of add a little acidity to the dressing. So you want to roll it to release the juices and just add about tablespoon of lemon juice. And then, we’re going to add a little bit of Dijon mustard. Now, the Dijon mustard has a little bit of tang and also it brings the salad dressing together. So a tablespoon of Dijon mustard and a little bit of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. A very simple dressing but very elegant and sophisticated. Just mix all those together and add extra virgin olive oil. Just add that right in. Swap that, there we go. You just want to whisk it as you add any extra virgin olive oil. Okay, so now the dressing is done. So I just want to take this egg. I just want to slice the egg and I have a hard boiled egg and basically to make the perfect had boiled egg. You stick the egg in cold water. Bring it up to boil and then turn the stove off and leave the egg in the hot water for about 15 to 20 minutes. And then ready to peel it. And I need to finish off this salad. I’ve lined this serving dish with butter and lettuce. It just makes it look really pretty, and I'm going to add my asparagus. I’ve trimmed my asparagus and then I just blanch them in boiling water just about for a couple of minutes. And then I shock them in ice water just to retain that beautiful crisp green color. We just lined the platter and we put the egg right over it. See how pretty the colors are. And for a little bit of crunch, I’ve toasted and chop some almonds. And now, you top it, put with the dressing and take a couple of the asparagus spears and the egg. The asparagus is still slightly crunchy. It's perfect.