If my Instagram feed informed me of anything this weekend, it’s that rooftop season has officially begun in Brooklyn, and you bettah bet I was part of it.

The weather jumped from the springtime sixties, which we’re all so happy to finally have, to summertime high seventies. I mean, there wasn’t any other choice but to find space outside and camp out for a few hours. So with a little bit of inspiration from Ina (who else?), I casually whipped up while photographing everything multiple times a sunny brunch to take to the roof.

I was very close to making this, but all I really wanted to do was lie on the roof and enjoy the sunny skies. No matter how easy the hollandaise is I really didn’t want to clean a blender. Plus I had basil pesto already made, and you know how I feel about pesto.

In this scenario (ya know, the one where I pretend that I’m Ina Garten), my good friend Amy was Jeffrey, and she brought Vietnamese iced coffees from the AP Café down the street. If you don’t know, Vietnamese iced coffee is dark roast coffee sweetened with condensed milk and if you haven’t had it, go find some right now.

I whispered suggestively to her, “Why don’t we go up to the roof? It is sunny out, after all.”* So we did just that, after smartly lathering ourselves in sunscreen. Ah, iced coffee and sunscreen: the sweet smell of summer.

*Note: If you don’t watch the video of Ina making Jeffery lunch in the link above, you maybe won’t get this weird aside. I highly recommend watching it – it’s Ina at her best. Look at how happy she is when she cooks!

Roasted Asparagus with Pesto and an Egg

Serves: 2 people

Ingredients:

1 bunch of asparagus, tough ends snapped or cut off

2-3 slices of prosciutto

2 eggs

3 heaping tablespoons of pesto (I used a traditional basil pesto, but use any kind you like, like this one)

2 heaping teaspoons of mayonnaise

Juice from ½ a lemon

A few slices of baguette or sourdough to toast

Olive oil, to roast asparagus

Butter, to fry the eggs

Kosher Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, mix your pesto, mayonnaise, and lemon juice to make an aioli. Set aside.
3. Place the asparagus in a single layer on a sheet tray and drizzle with olive oil and some salt and pepper. Roast it for 10-15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, drizzle the tiniest bit of olive oil in a fry pan and add the prosciutto, also in a single layer. Cook on medium heat for just a few minutes on each side to crisp it up. Set it aside when it’s finished.
5. Add butter to the fry pan and fry your eggs. I like to cover mine towards the end to set the whites while still keeping the yolks runny.
6. While the prosciutto and eggs are cooking, toast your bread.
7. Assembly: On a nice, blue patterned plate (or just…any plate) add your toast on one side. In the middle, add the asparagus. Place a slice of prosciutto on top and then add an egg on top of that. Drizzle, dollop, or throw some pesto on top of that and you have yourself a sunny side up brunch for a sunny side up day. Add some sea salt flakes if you’re feeling particularly sassy, then feast in the sun.