Roasted Asparagus and Prosciutto Breakfast

I made the following breakfast from, you guessed it, the Barefoot Contessa’s Foolproof before we left to toured The Country Music Hall of Fame.  Fan or not this is a must see when visiting Nashville.  This recipe serves 3 so I increased everything as we were 4.  I also served William Sonoma croissants with this dish, juice and coffee or tea.

Ingredients:

1 # fresh asparagus

EVOO

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 large slices prosciutto

1 ½ T unsalted butter

3 extra large eggs

Hollandaise Sauce (it is in the book, but I use Knorr’s)

Directions:

1.       Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

2.       Cut off and discard the bottom 1/3 of the asparagus.  Depending on the thickness you can also peel about halfway up the stalk.  Plan of 5 or 6 stalks per person.    

3.       Place the asparagus in a single layer on a sheet pan, drizzle with EVOO, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

4.       Roast about 10 minutes, until the stalks are just tender.

5.       Meanwhile place the prosciutto in a single layer on another sheet pan and roast in the same oven for 5 minutes.  Mine took about 6 minutes.

6.       Melt the butter in a medium sauté pan over medium heat and wait until      the bubbles almost subside.  Crack the eggs into the skillet, keeping them separate, if possible.  Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper and cook over medium heat until the whites are cooked but the yolks are still runny.  Don’t turn them over.  (Our guests did not like runny yolks, which is my preference.  I’d say check this out before serving this dish,)

7.       Arrange the asparagus on 3 palates. 

8.       Place 2 slices of prosciutto on top of each pile, drizzle with hollandaise and place a fried egg on top of the prosciutto. 

9.       Serve hot. 

We had a late lunch at the museum and then returned home to work on our cooking trip to Italy.  We fed Max and then headed downtown to the Honky Tonks.  This is a venue I can do without, but I seem to be alone in this.  It is Friday night and Kid Rock is playing at the Bridgestone.  I thought we would never find a place to park.  The first establishment we went into was called Tootsies.  It was wall to wall people with two bands playing.  I could hardly wait to get out of there.  In case of fire, you are dead!  Next Jim wanted to go to the Wild Horse.  Luckily it had a 1 ½ hour wait.  We ended the evening at BB Kings.  Music was better and the whole place is clean and civilized.  The food was not half bad for those places.  Enough said.