This, fellow food lovers, is a great appetizer or side to make this Valentine’s Day. It would also work great for parties, baby showers, you name it. We had ours Super Bowl Sunday along with some yummy beef stew. I knew canned crescent rolls were versatile, but this is the first time I’ve made anything with them. The results were exceptionally yummy!
I, of course, forgot to get the mozzarella cheese called for, but we keep a lot of cheese in my house and we decided to use the Asiago and Parmesan seen above. When in doubt, go with a cheese you know you already like.
The first step is to unroll the crescent roll dough and cut each piece in half as equally as possible. Start with the bottom half, find the middle and then line the rest of your long, sharp knife with the pointed tip of the piece of dough – and slice! Trust me, I can’t cut stuff evenly to save my life and we had no problem with some pieces being bigger than others. Big, small, slender or not, they all worked.
Like most pastry dough, you want to work quickly enough that the dough doesn’t dry out (or sometimes get too warm, the butter in them will make them difficult to work with if too warm). I kind of did let ours get too dry and the cheese didn’t want to stick the dough. First, we realized the cheese probably wasn’t grated finely enough, so into the mini food processor it went to become more of a fine-grated texture, more like what you get in the pre-grated Parmesan shakers.
Then we noticed that the dough was getting dry. If this happens to you, just get a small cup of water and barely dip your fingertip in and dab the water onto the dough. Press the slightly damp dough into the cheese. It should now be sticking much better to the dough.
If you decide to use prosciutto – trust us, it’s GOOD here – just line it up with the piece of dough. If it overlaps a little, it’s cool.
Take an asparagus spear and hold it at an angle to the dough, like so, and just roll that yummy green spear right up. Holding it at an angle as shown will help the dough to wrap along more of the asparagus and not just bunch up around one spot.
Last but not least, sprinkle on a little more of that cheeeeese. YUM.
The asparagus spirals are done when the dough is just barely browned, and the cheese you sprinkled on that hit the pan is nice and golden brown. And hey – don’t throw those bits of thin, crisp cheese away! Do scrape them off the pan and sprinkle them on the asparagus as a garnish. They’re rather excellent in their own way.
While the recipe calls for the larger asparagus, the only ones that were worth buying that day were the thinner asparagus, and they actually worked out really well. There was just the right ratio of veggie to prosciutto to pastry. These were so much fun to make and a breeze to make as well. Sis Blogging Partner and I had it going on with our assembly, me prepping the dough and pressing them into the cheese while she put on the prosciutto and rolled it all up. If you’re blessed to have kids who don’t scream in mortal terror at the sight of a green vegetable, by golly, get them to help! It really is easy, fun work. In the time it took us to bake one sheet, we made another. These went great with our beef stew later and they reheat well in the oven, too. What can we say, they’re just about the perfect appetizer. Enjoy!
Crescent Roll Asparagus Spirals
Originally seen on The Cookie Rookie, but also at Tasty Kitchen
Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: about 15 minutes Level: Easy Makes: 16
8 large asparagus, tough ends trimmed (about an inch and a half, usually)
½ tube pre-made crescent rolls (4 oz)
1 cup fine-grated parmesean cheese
1/2 tsp. seasoning salt (or other favorite seasoning blend)
1 cup fine-grated asiago cheese, or other favorite cheese
4 large slices prosciutto, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan with foil.
Cut each piece of crescent roll dough in half. Start with your knife at the bottom of each piece, lining the rest of the knife with the tip of the dough to cut as evenly in half as possible. Set aside.
Mix the Parmesan, asiago and seasoning salt together in a wide, shallow bowl. Coat both sides of each wedge of dough generously. If your dough has become dry and the cheese doesn’t want to adhere well to it, take just a small amount of water on a fingertip, dab it on the dough and press the damp dough into the cheese. If using prosciutto, line a small piece up with the dough.
Wrap the asparagus with the crescent roll, starting with the tip of the roll, holding the asparagus almost at a perpendicular angle to the dough. The dough will then wrap down the length of the asparagus spear. If the tip of the dough comes loose, simply wrap it back around the tip of the asparagus.
Place the asparagus on the foil lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese mixture. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until the dough is very lightly browned.
Notes:
Not much to add! This was a very easy recipe to adapt and make our own with what we had. The only things we really changed were to add less of the seasoned salt (kind of a must as the cheese and meat are both pretty salty, too) and changing up the cheese mixture due to using what was on hand. Pre-grated Parmesan will work fine, too. The more slender asparagus worked really well and was still crisp-tender when done. This is a really great keeper recipe!
To reheat later, simply put back onto a foil-lined baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, give or take. These are best the day they’re made (and when they first come out of the oven), but you could make them ahead that morning and reheat later in the day. We stored them in the fridge.