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Holiday Favorite: Easy Prosciutto Asparagus Wraps

Finger Food Idea – prosciutto wrapped asparagus – it’s EASY

Everyone has a favorite holiday appetizer: finger foods for the Christmas office party, New Year’s party, or any other gathering. After twenty years in the restaurant business, I’ve collected all sorts of great and easy holiday food ideas – from hors-d’oeuvre to main courses.

This one is an easy finger food idea. A very dear friend of mine can’t boil eggs without step-by-step instructions. She saw me cooking this recipe and said, “Fran! Even I can cook this one!” It’s really that simple.

Finger Food: Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

  1. This is the ‘hard’ part: pick your asparagus carefully. Make sure that you buy asparagus spears that have tight heads. What I mean is that all of the little buds should be tight and very close to the stalk.
  2. Wash your asparagus in cold water and break off the “woody” lower end of the stem. Make it even easier so that you don’t have to guess, bend each asparagus spear until they snap in two. That’s the natural point where the soft edible part begins.
  3. For appearance, after you’ve snapped them cut all spears about the same length.
  4. Blanch your stalks to bring out that appetizing bright green color. Just drop them briefly (about 15-20 seconds) into boiling water. Take them out right when the color brightens. Immediately immerse them in ice water to stop them from cooking.
  5. Wrap each spear with enough prosciutto to completely go around the stalk. You want to leave both ends of the asparagus spear exposed.
  6. Preheat your grilling pan. Add a little olive oil – just wipe some on for flavor. No puddles of oil.
  7. Grill the prosciutto-spears, turning as needed, just until they start to brown.
  8. Remember that the prosciutto is already cooked, so you don’t have to make these really crispy but they will crisp a bit. This will be about 3-4 minutes. Make sure that you roll them in the grill pan so they color evenly.

Serve this alongside another insanely easy appetizer like slender morsels of mozzarella cheese wrapped with fresh basil leaves. YUM.

And as always, have fun!

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