The White Shepherd

Espárragos blancos de Navarra — the white asparagus of Tudela and Calahorra — is grown earthed-up so the spears never see sunlight, retaining ivory flesh and a vegetal-mineral, sweet-bitter register that distinguishes them from green asparagus. The White Shepherd combines white asparagus tips with queso de untar (fresh cream cheese), sea salt and lemon juice. The cream cheese smooths and amplifies; the lemon keeps the asparagus’s sweet-bitter edge clean and bright; the salt opens up the mineral character. The result reads as the contemporary high-end Navarran tapa: pale-cream coloured with green flecks, lush in texture, vegetal-fresh in aroma, and finished with the asparagus’s signature gentle bitterness — the sign of provenance, never disguised.