Cooking class, and cooking class leftovers

On Wednesday, I taught a spring foods-themed cooking class. It was disappointing, in that it was small - only four students - but it was a pleasant way to spend an evening with a group of women. We made: asparagus wrapped in filo, roasted asparagus with walnut crema, and chicken tenders - as vehicle food for some rhubarb chutney, which I brought already prepared. Also in advance, I made honey-roasted rhubarb, and we ate rhubarb custard tart, and I tossed a salad with some of the roasted rhubarb, and greens, and bleu cheese, and Trader Joe's sweet nuts, and a chive-y vinaigrette. I forgot the sugar in the tart - it's a recipe from the UK National gallery - so it stayed pale, and didn't get nice and brown like this one:

The most surprising thing, though, was the radish leaf pesto - that we ate on crackers with salami on top. The other disappointment was that I did n't take many photos, and the ones I did take didn't turn out very well.

Using up the leftovers turned out to be a happy surprise, though. The day after the class, I got yet another bunch of asparagus (and more rhubarb, and radishes) in my CSA box. Last night, I grilled the asparagus in my ridged grill pan. I cooked two 9-ounce boxes of RP's Campanelle (and it stuck together, so all of the pieces weren't the trumpet, bellflower, shapes they're 'sposed to be, but they were more gnocchi-like, dumpling-y, which was good with this sauce), and tossed it with the last of the walnut crema (about a cup) and the last of the radish pesto (about 2 TBLS). I cut up the grilled asparagus, and warmed it in a big skillet with a few TBLS butter, then tore in 6 or 7 oil cured black olives, and added the pasta. Also happily, I had eaters on hand when the pasta was ready - John & Al, and Mark, were all here for dinner.

We ate it with garlic toast, and a salad - and it was pronounced good even by AL, since it was a tomato-free sauce. He even ate the last bit when he got in from a night of drinking.