Italian Sausage w/ Asparagus + Purple Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients: sweet Italian sausage, asparagus, purple and red potatoes, heavy cream, butter, garlic, kosher salt and cracked pepper

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This is probably the most colorful savory dish I have ever made; I think it's so pretty! I've never made mashed potatoes with purple potatoes before and the color makes it so much more appealing (they taste exactly the same as regular potatoes, obviously). 

I use a Jacques Pépin secret to get perfectly cooked, green asparagus: sauté in a hot pan with a bit of olive oil, toss for about a minute on high and then add a splash of water and slam a lid on top of it. The result is a quick steam to make sure the asparagus cooks through. Keep the lid on for about 3 minutes and then remove it and turn the heat down to medium-low and add fresh garlic until all the water burns off. Remove from heat and then squirt some fresh lemon on top. [You can use the same technique for broccoli.]