roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

I saw this purple asparagus at TJ’s the other day and I couldn’t resist. It’s so beautiful and fresh, and, well, so purple! I just baked them in the oven with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed a few quartered semi-dried Roma tomatoes I had made earlier. The flavors were amazing! Here’s the recipe:

roasted purple asparagus with semi-dried Roma tomatoes

for the tomatoes:

6 large Roma tomatoes
1 tsp brown sugar
Kosher salt
Black pepper
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp minced fresh thyme
1 clove garlic mashed

fresh purple asparagus

for the asparagus:

1 bunch of purple asparagus, fibrous bases removed
1 clove garlic
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil

to prepare tomatoes:

Wash tomatoes. Remove stem and top where fruit attaches to stem. Split each tomato into quarters. Toss with sugar, salt, pepper, thyme and one tbsp olive oil. Lay tomato quarters on a cooling rack within ½ inch from each other (the rack is to keep tomatoes suspended above the roasting pan so they will not sit in the juice). Bake in the oven at 310-315F for a couple of hours or until they have shriveled to about ½ of their size. Remove from oven. Toss with mashed garlic and remaining olive oil.

to prepare asparagus:

Pre heat the oven to 430F

Place asparagus in a baking tray. Add garlic, salt, pepper, balsamic and olive oil and toss to coat. Cover with tin foil and bake for 12 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from oven.

Transfer to a serving dish and add the semi dried tomatoes.