Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

     For the life of me, I cannot figure out why people love bacon so much and feel the need to include it in every meal of the day.  I've never had a bacon burger, I skip the bacon bits on my baked potatoes, and I try to avoid meat at breakfast time whenever possible. However, prosciutto, bacon's Italian cousin is a different story. I don't exactly know what makes it different from bacon, but it's some good stuff. I take full advantage of any and all opportunities to cook with it.  Serving prosciutto with vegetables works really well because the healthiness of the veggies balances out the salt and fat, at least in my world.
     And now my thoughts about asparagus: It's one of my favorite vegetables, and I think many people share this opinion. For one of my college German classes, we had to meet weekly in groups to spend an hour chatting with native speakers. These meetings were always extremely awkward, as we never had any idea what to talk about. One day, we started talking about recipes, and that's when I learned the German word for asparagus: Spargel. We then proceeded to have a 20 minute conversation about Spargel--how to cook it, where it's grown, etc. There are many ways to cook it, but my favorite is roasting it in the oven, wrapped in prosciutto.

INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch of fresh asparagus (about 25 stalks)
at least 5 slices of prosciutto
1/2 teaspoon pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 375 and spray a cookie sheet with Pam.
2. Wash the asparagus and chop the bottom ends off.
3. Squeeze the lemon juice sprinkle the pepper over the stalks. You don't need to add salt because the prosciutto is already salty enough.
4. Divide the asparagus into bunches of 5 stalks. Wrap one slice of prosciutto around the middle of each bunch. Be gentle because the slices are very thin and delicate.

5. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until tender.

I hope this opens up your mind a little to the possibilities of vegetables. Check back tomorrow for another dinner recipe!