Jamon Wrapped Asparagus and White Anchovy Wrapped Spanish Olives Tapas

Enjoyed our first jamon experience today! Jamon is Spanish ham and has a very delicious yet different flavor from American ham or Italian pancetta or prosciutto. Jamon is a dry cured ham. It comes in two varieties. One is the serrano, meaning ham from the mountains, and the other is iberico, which is ham from the Black Iberian pig. We were fortunate enough to find Serrano Redondo Reserva Jamon at our local Back Porch Market where we also purchased Spanish olives, white anchovies and Idiazabal cheese.

We found a tapas recipe using asparagus and jamon from www.lydiasflexitariankitchen.com. We reduced the cooking time to 5 minutes and it was excellent! As we were exploring images of tapas we saw some anchovy wrapped olives so we added that to the lunch. What a wonderful way to titillate your taste buds! 

Serves:                   as tapas; perhaps 2 to 6
Prep Time:            20 minutes
Cook Time:             5 minutes

INGREDIENTS:
For the wrapped asparagus:
1/4 pound jamon de Serrano, sliced slightly thicker than prosciutto
9 fairly thin asparagus spears
Juice and zest of one lemon
Olive oil
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper

For the wrapped olives:
9 - 12 large green pitted Spanish olives
White anchovies; one per olive
Bamboo skewers; one per 3 olives

For the dish of olives:
4 - 6 ounces of mixed Spanish olives

PREPARATION:
1. Zest and juice the lemon (measure the lemon juice and use 2-3 times the amount of olive oil as the amount of lemon juice)
2. Whisk the lemon juice and olive oil until well combined. 
3. Whisk in the lemon zest, salt and pepper. Set aside
4. Wrap the asparagus with the jamon. Drizzle with olive oil and bake in a preheated oven at 400* for 5 minutes.
5. Skewer the olives then wrap each with an anchovy.

SERVING:
This is tapas; to be enjoyed with wine or beer. Personally I think that a good Spanish sherry would be excellent with these flavors. However, beer lovers will probably go with a fairly light one, perhaps Hefeweizen.

Since we made these tapas around noon, we ate them for lunch and it was enough for both of us. In any event, enjoy the complexity of these Spanish flavors as they are delicious.

Bon appetit,

Tom and Anita

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Jamon Wrapped Asparagus and White Anchovy Wrapped Spanish Olives Tapas

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