Sunday's recipe: strawberry and asparagus salad

Today’s recipe is a salad I recently got to like very much because it’s an unexpected way to eat strawberries. I love any version of asparagus but the combination with the sweet strawberries and slightly bitter taste of the rocket is surprisingly good.
All in all a lovely and delicious spring/summer salad!

ingredients (serves two):

700 g asparagus (if you like, you can use white and/or green ones)
125 g strawberries
50 g sugar
50 ml balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
75 g rocket leaves
1 tbsp pine nuts, roasted
½ tsp dried basil
salt and pepper

How to:

Trim the woody ends of the asparagus, blanch in salted boiling water for about 7 minutes. Slice the strawberries in halves. When the asparagus are crisp-tender, drain them and plunge in iced water, then set aside. In a small saucepan, caramelize the sugar, then deglaze with water and balsamic vinegar and let simmer for 5 minutes. Then add the olive oil and dried basil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange the rocket leaves on a serving plate, top with asparagus and strawberries, add the roasted pine nuts and pour the dressing all over.

Enjoy!