Eat: Bacon-wrapped asparagus? Turns out we’ve been doing this all wrong.
JESSICA GAVIN’S SCIENCE TO MAKING
Bacon-wrapped dates? Bacon-wrapped figs? Bacon-wrapped anything? We’ve been doing it all wrong, says culinary scientist Jessica Gavin, author of the new “Easy Culinary Science for Better Cooking” (Page Street Publishing, $23).
“There are two common issues when wrapping vegetables in bacon,” the Alameda native said. “First, the bacon never gets crispy enough on both sides. Second, the asparagus shrinks to tiny sticks.”
It’s not that we’re inept, Gavin said, reassuringly. It’s that it takes more than 30 minutes of roasting time for that bacon to crisp up — and by then the asparagus has been overcooked to an unappetizing degree. The solution is simple. Roast the bacon on a rack at 400 degrees first, she said, “just until both sides begin to brown but are not crisp. The goal is to have a parcooked piece of flexible bacon that’s easy to wrap around the spears, but isn’t raw. Precooking the bacon cuts down that oven time so the asparagus gets a little crisp on the edges but remains tender and green.”
Gavin’s other trick is a black pepper and maple syrup glaze, which she brushes over the veggie bundles at the beginning and again during the roasting time.
It promotes caramelization, she said, “seasons the asparagus and browns the tips for more flavor. The bacon gets a sticky candy-like coating for the ultimate crispiness and flavor.”
Here’s how it’s done:
Caramelized Asparagus Wrapped in Bacon
Serves 5
INGREDIENTS
3 tablespoons olive oil ¼ cup pure maple syrup ½ teaspoon black pepper, plus more for seasoning
5 slices thick-cut bacon 1 pound asparagus, trimmed to 7-inch long spears
Kosher salt, as needed for seasoning
DIRECTIONS
Adjust the oven rack to the center position and heat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, maple syrup and black pepper. Set aside. Line a sheet pan with foil and place a wire rack on top. Spray the rack with nonstick cooking spray. Place 5 slices of bacon spaced evenly apart on the pan. Roast until the bacon just begins to shrink and turns a slightly red color, but is still flexible, about 5 minutes, depending on thickness. You don’t want the bacon to be completely crispy, because it will break when wrapping around the asparagus. Remove the bacon from the oven and brush with the maple syrup mixture on both sides. Roast the bacon for 3 more minutes. Allow the bacon to cool until it’s easy to handle with your fingers. Divide the asparagus into five even-size bundles. On a cutting board, wrap one slice of the parcooked bacon overlapping over the length of the asparagus spears. Secure the bacon with a toothpick. Carefully place the bundles on the baking rack. Generously brush the maple syrup mixture over the bacon-wrapped asparagus spears on both sides. Lightly season each bundle with salt and pepper.
Roast the asparagus bundles for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and brush the maple mixture over just the bacon. Roast for 5 minutes, or until the bacon is browned and crispy, and the asparagus is tender.