This is one of those dishes that was born out of my years of catering and the necessity to come up with something new for cocktail parties. Roasting the asparagus is fast and easy and gives a lot more flavor than simply steaming.

　　

Ingredients

6 appetizer servings

　　12 asparagus stalks (about 1 pound), trimmed

　　1 tablespoon olive oil

　　1 teaspoon salt

　　1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

　　6 paper-thin slices of prosciutto, halved lengthwise

　　

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Peel the bottom half of each asparagus. On a heavy baking sheet, toss the asparagus with the oil, salt, and pepper. Put in the oven and roast until the asparagus is tender, about 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

　　

Step 2

Wrap each asparagus with 1 piece of prosciutto, exposing the tips. Arrange on a platter and serve at room temperature.

　　Cooks' Note

　　When buying asparagus, you want to look for firm stems, not wilted ones, and you want the tops to be tight and closed, not like a flower whose buds have opened. These are characteristics of fresh asparagus. To trim them, all you need to do is break off the dry, fibrous ends.

　　Reprinted with permission from Everyday Italian: 125 Simple and Delicious Recipes by Martha Stewart Living Magazine. Copyright © 2005 by Giada De Laurentiis. Published by Crown Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved.Giada De Laurentiis is the star of Food Network's Everyday Italian and Behind the Bash. She attended the Cordon Bleu in Paris, and then worked in a variety of Los Angeles restaurants, including Wolfgang Puck's Spago, before starting her own catering and private-chef company, GDL Foods. The granddaughter of movie producer Dino De Laurentiis, Giada was born in Rome and grew up in Los Angeles, where she now lives.