How To Perfectly Grill Italian Parmesan Asparagus

Truly the best grilled asparagus you’ll ever eat! Perfectly smoky & coated in an Italian Herbed oil & Cheese that will keep the family coming back for more!

Growing up you could not pay me enough money to eat asparagus let alone try it. It was just weird looking therefore it must not be good. Yeah… I was an idiot. I was SUCH a picky child that if it wasn’t pizza, pb&j, corn, or mashed potatoes I would turn my nose up and refuse to even try it.

<sorry Mom & Dad for being a brat>

Obsessed With Asparagus Now

Now, I make this stuff several times a month as we both love it. Baked, fried, roasted – they are all good but y’all grilling it… that’s some next-level stuff right there!

Light Up The Grill

Now, this recipe I’m making it on Big Purple Sexy, my Santa Maria Asadera but I’ve made this on my Big Green Egg, my gas grill, in my pizza oven, and even in my home oven. The home oven/gas grill doesn’t give you though the same char/smokiness you get from a charcoal or wood-fired grill but it’s still delicious!

1. Add some charcoal and a few wood blocks/chunks to the grill and light it up. For my grill, I use a charcoal chimney starter. It makes it so much easier to light the coals.
2. Once the coals are lit and start to turn white/gray, they are dumped out into the box, some wood chunks added and the grate is lowered about 4″ about the heat. I’ll ‘shoot’ the grates with an infrared thermometer gun and when the grates are at 425F, I’ll raise the grate up about 6″ from the fire.

Grab Your Ingredients

This recipe has you making an Italian Herb Oil. You will have extra but that’s OK! This stuff you will want on everything!

• Asparagus – I prefer the pencil-thin versus the thicker ones. You can certainly use the thicker ones but they will take longer to cook and soften.
• Olive Oil
• Seasonings
• Freshly Grated Parmesan Cheese

Make the Oil

1. To a shaker bottle or a bowl, add the oil and all of the herbs/seasonings. Close the lid and give it a good shake to mix thoroughly.
2. Right before you drizzle this on your asparagus, give it another good shake to mix it up.

Coat The Asparagus

1. Place the asparagus on a plate or dish, drizzle over the oil mixture, and using tongs, or clean hands, toss to coat evenly.

Grill The Asparagus

1. Check the grates one last time to ensure that they are at 400F. With heat-safe tongs, add the asparagus in a single layer.
2. Grill for 5-6 times or until the bottom starts to char. If they are too charred, raise the grate. If they aren’t grilled enough, let them be for a few more minutes.
3. Cook for another 4-5 minutes or until the desired doneness is reached.

I like my asparagus with a bit of bite/crunch but not too much. Mr. Fantabulous prefers his to where they are super soft and limp. So choose your own doneness.

Perfectly Grilled Asparagus

Give the hot asparagus another quick drizzle of Italian herb oil and at this point, you can eat them as-is or cheese ’em up!

Cheese Please

The key with this is to use freshly grated cheese that’s hard. Parmesan, Pecorino, Asiago, and the like are all amazing cheeses on this.

If you want, you can even give it a squeeze of fresh lemon too right before serving.

Time To Eat!

Folks Mr. Fantabulous and I burnt out mouths when we ate this. It took me maybe 15 seconds to get it off of the grill, drizzle some more oil, and cheese it. it was HOT HOT HOT!

We stood there right next to the grill and ate the ENTIRE plate outside!

I literally had to make a whole new batch just so I could shoot the video and pictures!

Chef’s Bite

You can be sure that I stole the first piece before Mr. Fantabulous did! I LOVE this recipe!

Oven “Grilled” Asparagus

If you don’t have a grill or it’s snowing/raining/too cold to go out and grill you can make this in the oven but you won’t quite get that ‘grill’/smoky taste. I’ve tried adding liquid smoke but it’s not good.

However, if you have a Smoking Gun, you can use that on it once it’s done to help infuse some flavor

1. Preheat the oven to 425/450F. You want the oven hot so it’ll crisp up the outside and soften the inside without any of the flimsiness.
2. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spread the asparagus in a single layer
3. Drizzle on the oil mixture and bake for 8 minutes, remove from the oven, flip and roast for a few minutes more.
4. Remove from the oven, drizzle more oil and sprinkle with cheese.

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