Asparagus and Prosciutto Quiche

It's finally starting to feel like spring so I've been feeling like doing more spring-like cooking. One of my favorite foods locally available this time of year is asparagus. We have it quite often, but usually, steamed or grilled, as a side dish. After my frittata experiment a few weeks ago turned out so well, I decided to expand a bit and try asparagus in a quiche. As usual, I googled around the a bit and discovered 'the internet' considers prosciutto  a nice compliment to asparagus. Who was I to argue?

I bought some of both (it may or may not have been the same day) and simply substituted them into my usual quiche Lorraine recipe, with a few minor alterations. The result? I now have a new ' usual'.

Asparagus and Prosciutto Quiche

Pastry for 9 inch pie crust
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 minced onion
1/2 -3/4 pound (ish) asparagus, cut on a diagonal into 1 inch pieces
4 oz shredded Swiss Cheese
4 eggs
1 cup cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 or 5 slices prosciutto

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in pan. Add onion and cook a few minutes over low heat until it becomes translucent. Add the asparagus and cook a few minutes more, until asparagus is softened, but not cooked through.
Sprinkle the asparagus, onion and cheese in pastry lined pan. Beat eggs until uniform yellow, then add cream and salt.

Pour into pie pan. Arrange the slices of prosciutto on the top. Bake 15 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 300 degrees and continue baking 30-40 minutes, or until knife inserted 1 inch from edge comes out clean. Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting.