Thinly slice the garlic cloves.

For asparagus, you could either shave all the asparagus or go half and half, like I did. For half the asparagus, I used a vegetable peeler and shaved into thin ribbons. For the rest of the half, I chopped it into bite size while keeping the tender tips longer. 

Place a big pot of water to boil and add salt to it. Once the water starts boiling, drop the spaghetti and boil for 8 minutes. After 4 minutes, drop the asparagus, both shaved and chopped.

At the same time, place a skillet on medium heat. Pour the oil and sliced garlic. As the oil heats up, the garlic chips will start to sizzle (this method of adding garlic in cold oil gives maximum garlic flavor to the sauce). Make sure not to burn the garlic chips. Switch the heat off once it turns mild brown in color. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and ¼ cup of the Parmesan cheese. Give it a stir and keep it aside until the spaghetti and asparagus are boiled and ready. 

Once the pasta is boiled, add ¼ cup of the pasta water to the skillet along with the boiled pasta and asparagus. Add rest of the Parmesan cheese. Mix it around and serve immediately with more Parmesan cheese on top.