A Taste of Spring for Passover: Italian Asparagus Soup with Saffron

I love serving asparagus at Passover. It’s one of my favorite vegetables, and since I (more or less) only eat it seasonally, Passover tends to fall around the beginning of the season. My seders usually feature roasted asparagus spears, but I’m always on the lookout for new and different ways to serve this delectable harbinger of spring. Like this Italian asparagus soup. 

Asparagus, a member of the lily family, is probably native to Greece or Turkey and has long been grown throughout much of southern and central Europe. The ancient Romans cultivated asparagus, in addition to consuming the more intensely flavored wild stalks, but after the fall of the Roman Empire cultivated asparagus disappeared from the European table. Indeed, until the eighteenth century, this vegetable was primarily gathered from the wild (and was a favored foodstuff of wild boars!).

In Islamic regions of the Mediterranean, however, asparagus cultivation continued uninterrupted. Asparagus can most commonly be found in recipes hailing from Italy, Hungary, and the Balkans, where it was often enjoyed in soups and salads, as a side dish, or topped with delicate sauces. It can also be added to the ubiquitous Sephardic fritada, the omelet-like egg dish I covered when I wrote about fritada de espinaca.

But today we’re talking about soup. This simple asparagus soup hails from the Veneto in Italy; it has very few ingredients, which lets the fresh flavor of the asparagus shine. The recipe is slightly modified from Joyce Goldstein’s The New Mediterranean Jewish Table: Old World Recipes for the Modern Home, and it’s something of a cousin to the delightful Italian artichoke soup I posted a few months back for Purim. Both contain few ingredients, highlighting the tastes of their respective featured vegetables, and both use potato to add creaminess and heft. It’s traditionally served at Passover, but it’s too good to limit to the eight days of the holiday—try this one out anytime asparagus is in season.

For something so simple, this asparagus soup is truly delicious. Saffron adds a hint of the exotic, and the optional pistachio garnish brings some crunch and a little bit of protein to the table.

The recipe calls for preparing the asparagus tips separately from the stems and adding them back into the pureed soup at the end, but if you’re short on time or just feeling extra lazy feel free to skip that step and throw the tips in along with the stems at the beginning.

Asparagus Soup with Saffron from the Veneto (Crema di Asparagi allo Zafferano)

4 cups vegetable broth (or more as needed)

¼ teaspoon saffron threads

3 ½ to 4 pounds asparagus

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, margarine, or olive oil

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and diced

½ teaspoon salt (or more, depending on how salty your broth is)

Black pepper to taste

1/3–1/2 cup toasted and chopped pistachios (optional)

Add saffron to ½ cup of hot water. Let steep for 15 minutes.

Trim the ends of the asparagus, then cut the spears into 2-inch pieces and reserve the tips. Bring a saucepan filled with salted water to a boil, add the tips, and boil for 3 minutes. Drain, then immerse the tips in a bowl of cold water. Drain and set aside.

Heat the butter, margarine, or oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the asparagus stalks and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes. Add the potato, salt, saffron infusion, and 4 cups of the broth and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low and simmer until the asparagus and potato are very soft, about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Either puree with an immersion blender or transfer in batches to a stand blender, blend, and return to pan. Add an additional ½ cup of broth if needed to achieve the consistency you like. Season with pepper, and, if you like, additional salt.

To serve, ladle into bowls and garnish with asparagus tips and, if using, pistachios.

Sources: The New Mediterranean Jewish Table: Old World Recipes for the Modern Home (Joyce Goldstein, 2016); Olive Trees and Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities around the World (Gil Marks, 2004)