Baked Asparagus Spears

Posted by Ethne~

Shaun is really good at creative cooking.  He never refers to a recipe, just mixes and whizzes through the kitchen.  Most of the time his creations are great, and he is a master on the grill.  One of my favorite things he’s ever made is asparagus wrapped in prosciutto.

Thrifty Nana and I sipped champagne with pomegranite juice

Prosciutto is expensive, so it’s not an item we keep around the house.  Boy oh boy is it ever good, though.  It’s sliced so thin that when you cook it, it gets crispy like fancy bacon, which is basically what it is.

You can use prosciutto for this recipe, but since I was trying to make it more budget-friendly, I used hard salami slices.  It’s a little thicker than prosciutto, but it’s in the same family of deliciousness!

You can see the thickness of the salami in this picture;
I made pizza with these ingredients (that's spinach) - yum

Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray until it’s lightly coated.  Pre-heat the oven to 350º.  Hard part’s over.

Pick several nice asparagus spears and cut the bottom 1-2 inches off of the bottoms.  That part is kind of woody and tough.  Wash and dry the spears.

Wrap each spear with a slice of salami and lay it onto the baking sheet with the end of the salami down so it stays rolled.

Shaun doesn’t remember sprinkling the asparagus spears with parmesan cheese when he made it with prosciutto, but he concurred that it wouldn’t hurt in the least.  So onto the asparagus some shredded cheese went.

The camera decided to focus on my stove stains rather
than the asparagus.  Never mind that.

I baked the spears for about 30 minutes until the asparagus spears were slightly shriveled-looking (ie, they were cooked through and tender), the salami was crispy and sizzling, and the cheese was browned.

And a little extra cheese for good measure!

Da-lish!