Pasta with Asparagus, Prosciutto, Basil Butter

This is my riff on a recipe from Collards and Carbonara, the cookbook by chefs Andrew and Michael of Andrew | Michael Italian Kitchen, Hog & Hominy, Gray Canary, Bishop, etc etc

My riff makes their recipe faster because I skip the step where you made your own pasta, and I add meat for a slightly more filling dish.

Ingredients

• 1 bunch basil
• 4tbsp butter
• 1lb pasta, preferably something thin and long like spaghetti.
• 3-5oz of prosciutto
• 1 bunch asparagus, bias cut* into 1" pieces
• Grated Parmesan, as much as you like

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.
3. The prosciutto you bought is probably super thin and difficult to separate. Start working on that now, placing each piece on a nonstick cookie sheet. Then place the sheet in the oven, and cook until prosciutto begins to crisp, 5-10 minutes.
4. Melt butter in a large skillet (your pasta is going in here later). Very low heat, do not brown the butter.
5. Place basil in the skillet with the butter and just let it sit there on very low heat while you do other stuff.
6. Add pasta to boiling water, and while it's cooking you can slice up your asparagus.
7. For the last 3-4 minutes of cooking the pasta, add the asparagus to the boiling water.
8. Transfer pasta and asparagus to the basil butter pan and swirl to coat.
9. Crumble prosciutto and toss to mix it in.
10. Add parmesan (and red pepper flakes if you're into that) to taste, season with freshly cracked black pepper and serve.

* bias cut = from Food Network: "simply means cutting on the diagonal. Hold your food at a slight angle to the knife and slice. Bias cuts are often used in Asian stir-fry."