Asparagus soup

Last weekend we had a wonderful time at my husband family's farm.
We were hunting for morels, We were not very lucky with that but ... we brought home some delicious asparagus!
We had the smaller and more tender just boiled and dressed with olive oil, kosher salt and black pepper. Some were just too old and tough for this use and we decided to made a soup of them.

Asparagus soup
Zuppa di asparagi

Ingredients
about 20-25 asparagus
1 pt half and half
3 small shallots
2 tbs of salted butter
2 tbs of extra virgin olive oil
4 cup of water
black pepper

Preparation
Wash the asparagus and cut the last two inches of their tips. Set them aside. Chop the rest of the stems. There is no need to be too accurate here since, at some point, they will go in the food processor. Nevertheless starting from food that is homogeneous in size will help you having a final product that is evenly cooked.

In a pot melt the butter with the oil and add the chopped shallots. Let them get some color ('get blond', imbiondire), meaning they have to became softer and golden but NOT brown. Add the asparagus tips and let them flavor for 5 minutes. Take the points away with a straining ladle and set them aside.
Keep the fondo di cottura (what is left at the bottom of the pot) in the pot and add the chopped stem of the asparagus with 4 cups of water. Add salt and pepper at taste and cook 10 minutes. Put the asparagus stems with all their cooking liquid in a food processor (or use an immersion blender directly in the pot) and blend everything until smooth, adding the half and half a bit at a time.
Add back the asparagus points and cook further for 5 minutes.
Garnish with a sprinkle of black pepper and finely chopped parsley.

Next time, maybe, a morels recipe! ;-)