For the third installation of my series in honor of Grilled Cheese Month, I decided to bring spring into the picture with pan-roasted asparagus and fresh herbs from the garden.

Asparagus is popping up all over right now, and what better way to enjoy it than encased in ciabatta and melty young Asiago cheese? Exactly.

To make the sandwich, start with five or six asparagus stalks, and remove the tough ends. Heat olive oil in a medium-sized skillet and grill the asparagus in the hot pan until it is blistered and softened (this takes just a few minutes). Remove it from the pan and sprinkle it with a little salt. Chop up a handful of kalamata olives and whatever fresh herbs you have handy. I used mint and garlic chives, but basil, green garlic, tarragon, and parsley all would work well.

Slice a nice chunk of ciabatta in half and pile it high with young Asiago pressato–it’s soft and mild, but with that characteristic tang that is accentuated in the aged version (vecchio). Add the asparagus and chopped olives and herbs, and grill the sandwich in your oiled skillet. Remember to put another skillet on top to get it nice and pressed! If you were one those who succumbed to Williams-Sonoma back in 2004, use your panini press.

This week, as part of the nonfiction reading series “True Story” at Manhattan’s KGB Bar, Gabrielle Hamilton and Cheryl Tan will read from their recently published memoirs. Hamilton’s best seller Blood, Bones & Butter traces her trajectory from her parents’ kitchen table to chef-stardom as proprietress of Prune (home of the world’s best Bloody Mary). A Tiger in the Kitchen is Tan’s story of rediscovery of her Singaporean roots, complete with recipes!

When: Tuesday, April 26, 2011
7pm

Where: KGB Bar
85 E. 4th St., 2nd floor
Manhattan

Free!

As promised, Spooning will continue to honor National Grilled Cheese Month with a new sammy each week of April.

This week: A tropical twist on an Italian classic, pairing mozzarella and prosciutto with guayaba (guava paste). It’s probably the tastiest sandwich I’ve ever made. So here’s to grilled cheese month!

I started with a nice chunk of guayaba that I picked up from La Monarca bakery, which makes traditional Mexican desserts like sweet concha rolls and tres leches cake. You can find guava paste anywhere that sells Goya products or at latin markets.

To make the sandwich, butter both sides of four large slices of your favorite sandwich bread (mine is whole wheat sourdough). Spread the guava paste on the two halves, top with slices of fresh mozzarella and prosciutto, a few leaves of arugula, and a generous grating of lemon zest. Cook in a hot buttered skillet on both sides until golden and oozy. I put a smaller skillet on top of the sandwich while it cooks, to get the “panini” effect. ¡Que aproveche!

Lightweight as it is, matzo is freighted with significance—it symbolizes the flight of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and the resourcefulness of the ancient Israelite women in the face of deprivation. But, as Tel-Aviv based food writer Phyllis Glazer explains in her article in this week’s LA Times, it is also the core of Passover cuisine, since all leavened foods are prohibited during the holiday. But matzo is not the world’s tastiest food, meaningful as it is; Glazer’s ingenious modern-meets-ancient solution to this flavor quandry is nuts. Literally nuts, not meshuggenah nuts. Her seder recipes include roasted asparagus with hazelnuts and currents, walnut-stuffed eggplant rolls, and a chocolate-pecan fudge cake.

I’ve had the great fortune over the past decade or so to celebrate Passover with Miriyam Glazer—Phyllis’ sister and co-author of the excellent cookbook The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking. This year, I’m hoping, the seder is going to be nuttier than usual.