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" When I see fat asparagus spears at the grocery store for $1.69 a bundle, with tight, firm tops and fresh bottoms, I do respond with some suspicion. This time, though, I bought the asparagus anyway. It was so inexpensive and so green that I couldn&amp;#039;t resist. Our vegetable intake has fallen lately and I was glad to have something to put on our plates. What we ended up with was not a recipe or something I had planned in advance, but a result of me grabbing this (pasta) and that (tomatoes) and the other (balsamic vinegar) to turn my impulse purchase into a meal. At one point while making this, right after dribbling in the vinegar, I said, &amp;quot;Uh-oh, I think I just ruined dinner.&amp;quot; But it turned out good. Asparagus and balsamic showed up together a lot in my recipe searches, but the two that really hit it off were the tomatoes and balsamic. I chopped the asparagus into 1-inch piece and cut a medium-sized ripe tomato into small pieces (but not so small I&amp;#039;d call it a dice). Then I cooked them in some oil until the tomato broke down and the asparagus was crisp-tender, adding salt, pepper and balsamic vinegar. We grated cheese over the top because it seemed to need something, but I think some saut\u00A9ed onion and garlic would&amp;#039;ve added the depth of flavor I was missing out on. Over pasta. I have been waiting to stock my new kitchen (when, WHEN, not if, I finally get one) with spices from Penzey&amp;#039;s and vinegar, oil, polenta and other tasties from Zingerman&amp;#039;s. The recipes below have me tempted to go ahead and order some good vinegars right now: Tomato-Artichoke Chicken Penne with Chard and Pine Nuts Balsamic Chicken with Thyme What pantry item do you splurge on? \u2014 Kim Walker "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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