Purple asparagus

Asperge violette

What it is

The Violetto d'Albenga owes its colour to a doubled chromosome count, forty instead of twenty, rather than to any growing method, and it carries roughly a fifth more sugar than a green spear. Cut as the tip breaks daylight, it never builds the fibre a green spear develops standing up.

In the kitchen

Boiling turns it green in under a minute, since the anthocyanins are water-soluble and heat-fragile and simply wash out. Eat it raw and shaved, or roast it dry at high heat to keep some colour, and never peel it.

Goes with

Butter Egg Parmesan Olive oil Lemon Hazelnut Morel

Same species

Asparagus White asparagus Wild asparagus

In season alongside

Mangetout Pea Acacia honey Pauillac lamb Saltwater conger (anago) Prussian asparagus

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