Asparagus in Puff Pastry

A great entree for a spring luncheon is this easy dish that is long on elegant presentation. From one of Carolyne Roehm's seasonal books Spring. It is very easy to prepare and got rave reviews both in how it looked and how it tasted. In fact, my guests said that they would eat it all over again in May!For this dish, you need one sheet of thawed puff pastry. Carolyne's recipe called for cutting it in six pieces but I chose to cut it in fourths. After it is placed on the baking sheet, use a sharp knife to make diagonal cuts on the pastry. Bake according to package directions.

I found that since I had fat spears that I needed six per serving. I cut it so that the tops and some of the bottoms would peek out of the pastry. I briefly boiled, then chilled in cold water to set the color.

For the lemon butter sauce, you need the juice of 1 lemon and 2 sticks of butter. Put the juice in a saucepan and heat, add butter and slowly melt stirring occasionally until the mixture is thick and creamy.

To assemble, cut the puff pastry in half. Put a nice spoonful of the lemon butter sauce on a plate. Put the bottom half of the pastry on top of the lemon butter sauce. Top with asparagus and put the top half of the pastry on top.