Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Bacon in an omelette? Good.

Bacon on a burger? Great.

Bacon wrapped around a filet mignon? Awesome.

All these foods are made better with bacon, so why not asparagus?

That's what I thought.

I actually like asparagus as a stand alone vegetable. It grills very well and is super easy to make: just add some olive oil and pepper and you have a quick and healthy side. For this dish, I added bacon for the sole reason that it was going to go bad soon. Pair it with a vegetable and at least you can think you are consuming something good for you.

Process

As I mentioned above, this dish is super easy. I had some bacon and asparagus that needed to be used and that I did. I have made bacon wrapped asparagus before but never bundled multiple stalks together. The asparagus I had was rather on the small side so one piece of bacon would have been a little overkill (or wonderful based on your perspective). You can make the choice.



I prepped the spears and eliminated the hard part at the bottom. In addition, I cut them to about the same length for ease of bundling. Before wrapping the bacon I drizzled olive oil and added some ground pepper.

I partitioned the asparagus in sets of four and then wrapped a single piece of bacon around the bundle. It's rather simple enough but the trickiest part is wrapping the bacon over itself so it doesn't unravel. Once the bacon was ready it went into a preheated 400°F oven for about twenty minutes. Take it out when the bacon is cooked to your preference. I personally like crispy so I left them in for a little longer.


Update from Bryon: Use a rack in the pan so the grease drips off of the bacon and does not pool while cooking.


Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

Ingredients

1 lb bacon
1 lb asparagus
1 T olive oil
ground pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Wash asparagus and cut to length. 
2. Sprinkle with pepper and olive oil and separate out into groups of 4.
3. Take the bacon and wrap around each bundle of 4 stalks and place into a pan. Put in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on how crispy you want the bacon.