Parma Prosciutto and Asparagus Rolls

The season of asparagus is started and since the ones growing in my region are some of the best in whole Italy, the famous asparagus from Altedo, I think it's time to dedicate some of the next recipes to this vegetable.


Ingredients for approximately 6 persons: 3.3 lbs. of fresh asparagus, 7 ozs. of sliced parma prosciutto, 5 ozs. of parmesan cheese, 0.6 pts. of fresh cream, 1.5 ozs. flour, 1.5 ozs. butter, 0.9 pts. of milk, salt.

Preparation: first thing to do is to prepare the béchamel sauce. Amalgamate the flour into the melted butter, paying attention not to create lumps, then pour into slowly the hot milk. Add then some finely grated parmesan cheese. Make the sauce thicken on a low heat until it becomes a bit solid.
In the meanwhile boil the asparagus in salted water untile they'll be cooked "al dente", strain them and cut away their tough part. Spread the ham slices and put on each of them 3-4 asparagus and a spoon of béchamel sauce. Close up the ham to create a roll and fix it with a toothpick. Butter a baking tin and put the roll inside of it, wetting them with the cream. Put the tin into a hot oven for about 10-15 minutes then serve to table.