Please wait, the site is loading...

Grilled asparagus with serrano ham & romesco sauce


Serves: 4 as a starter
timePrep time: 15 mins
timeTotal time:
Grilled asparagus with serrano ham & romesco sauce
Recipe photograph by Andrew Montgomery

Grilled asparagus with serrano ham & romesco sauce


Serves: 4 as a starter
timePrep time: 15 mins
timeTotal time:

Rate this recipe
Print Print

Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
263Kcal
Fat
20gr
Saturates
3gr
Carbs
10gr
Sugars
6gr
Fibre
4gr
Protein
7gr
Salt
1.2gr

Lucas Hollweg

Lucas Hollweg

Lucas Hollweg is a self-taught cook and food writer respected for his laid-back, homely food. He was named Evelyn Rose 2012 Cookery Journalist of The Year and is author of Good Things To Eat.

See more of Lucas Hollweg’s recipes
Lucas Hollweg

Lucas Hollweg

Lucas Hollweg is a self-taught cook and food writer respected for his laid-back, homely food. He was named Evelyn Rose 2012 Cookery Journalist of The Year and is author of Good Things To Eat.

See more of Lucas Hollweg’s recipes

Ingredients

  • 24 spears of asparagus (about 400g)
  • 4 slices of serrano (or Parma) ham, halved lengthways
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds, finely ground in a pestle and mortar
  • a splash of extra-virgin olive oil
For the romesco sauce
  • 50g blanched almonds (or mixed almonds and hazelnuts)
  • 1 slice of country or white sourdough bread, crusts removed
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • a large pinch of sea salt flakes
  • 1 vine tomato, core removed
  • 1 roasted pepper from a jar, drained
  • ¼ tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tbsp sherry vinegar
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

Step by step

Get ahead
Make the romesco sauce up to a day ahead; keep in the fridge but serve at room temperature. Prepare the asparagus, ready for griddling, a few hours ahead.
  1. Start by making the romesco sauce. Put three-quarters of the nuts into a food processor and blitz to a coarse powder. Add the bread, garlic, salt, tomato, roasted pepper, smoked paprika, sherry vinegar and olive oil, and whiz to a smooth sauce.
  2. Add the remaining nuts and whiz so they are still a bit chunky. Taste and season with extra salt and smoked paprika, if needed. Set aside.
  3. Next, simmer the asparagus in a little boiling water in a shallow wide-based pan for 3-5 minutes or until just tender; drain. Sprinkle each half slice of ham with a little ground fennel seed and wrap three asparagus stems in each slice of ham.
    Tip
    Romesco is a classic Spanish sauce. It also partners well with griddled prawns, lamb cutlets or roast chicken.
  4. Heat a griddle pan until searing hot and cook the asparagus bundles, turning a few times during cooking, until lightly charred.
  5. Pile the bundles on to a large plate for sharing, splash a little extra olive oil over the tips and sprinkle over a little more salt, if you want to. Serve the romesco sauce alongside in a bowl for sharing.

You might also like...


We value your privacy

We use cookies to help give you the best experience on our site and to allow us and third parties to customise the marketing content you see across websites and social media. For more information see our cookie policy.

Cookie Preference Centre

Learn more about what each cookie category does and choose your settings (toggle right to opt in or left to opt out). Cookie policy


Strictly Necessary

These technologies are needed to enable our websites and apps to run and to keep it secure.

Sainsbury's Magazine

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
PHPSESSID Until the browsing session ends
device_view 1 month
viewedRecipes 1 year
subscription-{popup-version-date}-PopupClosed 12 days

Vimeo

Enables Vimeo videos on the site

Cookie name Duration
_derived_epik 1 year

Constant Commerce

Enables shopping tools for recipe ingredients

Cookie name Duration
cc_a_h 10 years
cc_a_s Until the browsing session ends

DoubleClick

DoubleClick Digital Marketing (DDM) is an integrated ad-technology platform that enables us to more effectively create, manage and grow high-impact digital marketing campaigns.

Cookie name Duration
DSID 10 days
IDE 1 year
RUL 11 months

Performance/Analytics

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Google

Google Analytics tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
__gads 13 months
gadsTest Until the browsing session ends
_ga 28 months
_gat 1 minute
_gid 1 day
1P_JAR 1 month
ANID 10 days
CONSENT 18 years
NID 6 months
__Secure-3PAPISID 2 years
__Secure-3PSID 2 years
__Secure-3PSIDCC 1 year

Marketing/Targeting

These technologies help us decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you. We use this data to customise the marketing content you see on websites, apps and social media. They also help us understand the performance of our marketing activities. These cookies are set by us or our carefully-selected third parties.

Pinterest

Pinterest conversion tracking gathers conversion insights and builds audiences to target based on actions our visitors have taken on the site.

Cookie name Duration
_pinterest_ct_rt 1 year
_pinterest_ct_ua 1 year
_pin_unauth 1 year

Outbrain

These technologies tell us how customers use our sites and apps and provide information to help us improve the website, apps and your browsing experience.

Cookie name Duration
outbrain_cid_fetch 5 minutes
adrl 5 weeks
apnxs 6 weeks
criteo 2 months
obuid 6 months

Twitter

Twitter conversion tracking enables us to measure our return on ad spend by tracking the actions people take after viewing or engaging with our ads on Twitter.

Cookie name Duration
personalization_id 2 years
muc 2 years
ads_prefs 5 years
auth_token 5 years
dnt 5 years
guest_id 2 years
twid 5 years