Proscuitto Roll-Up Appetizer

This Proscuitto Roll-Up Appetizer is so easy, even non-cooks will feel like serious chefs.

I set all the ingredients for this dish in front of two wonderful dudes who had indulged in a fair amount of booze, guys who may be fabulous cooks under normal conditions but perhaps slightly sloppy after a lot of tequila. (Now don’t think their wives weren’t equally sloppy; we were. But this is about the dish assigned to them. I’ll do a follow-up on our dishes – promise!)

Our husbands assembled these treats so quickly and thank goodness, as they were quite the remedy we needed, a little bit of protein to tame our mild tequila buzz. I’m not quite sure if Mark Bittman intended for his Asparagus and Proscuitto Roll-Ups (video to pop open) to morph into a sort of tequila chaser, but with a few edits they fit nicely into our Latin-themed feast and squelched our hunger pains while our freshly-fried nachos, paella and chocolate tamales were coming together.

Mark’s recipe calls for asparagus, but the markets just didn’t produce any truly fresh specimens. I did, however, find some pretty green beans which provided enough heft to the appetizer after a quick blanch. The other ingredients are easy to find: proscuitto slices (of course), arugula, cilantro, salt and pepper. Simply place a small portion of arugula and green beans at one end of a proscuitto slice. Add a few cilantro leaves and a light pinch of salt and pepper and roll.

These Proscuitto Roll-Up Appetizers are great with a glass of champagne, a cold beer or, as in our case, with a little tequilla and fresh fruit puree.