Instead of a long story about how my recipe reminds me of my grandfather’s wristwatch, I start with a quick difficulty list. This means you can easily decide if you’re up to it or if you’d rather toss a pizza in the oven.

For ingredients, 1 means you may already have all of them at home and 5 means you may need to special order an ingredient.
For equipment, 1 means the most very basic of tools are needed and 5 means needing to buy a special piece of equipment you may not use often.
For method, 1 means as easy as prepping and tossing in the oven and 5 means you’ll feel like you’re juggling flaming knives.

Ingredients: 1/5
Equipment: 1/5
Method: 2/5

This recipe makes an appetizer portion for 4-6 people

Ingredients:

  • 250g of Asparagus tips
  • 12 slices of prosciutto, cut into quarters
  • Lemon juice
  • Butter
  • Sea or rock salt for blanching
  • Salt and pepper
  • Ice

Equipment:

  • Medium stockpot
  • Large frying pan
  • Tongs
  • Large bowl

Method:

  1. Bring the medium stockpot to a boil and salt it thoroughly. The water should taste like seawater.
  2. Fill the large bowl with ice and cold water. This will be your ice bath for blanching the asparagus.
  3. Boil the asparagus for 2 minutes. Immediately remove and put into the ice bath for 5 minutes.
  4. Once the asparagus has chilled, remove from the bowl and dry.
  5. Wrap each piece of asparagus in prosciutto and set aside.
  6. Bring the frying pan to medium heat and melt butter into the pan so it coats the bottom of the pan.
  7. Carefully add the wrapped asparagus to the pan.
  8. Season with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
  9. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
  10. Serve immediately