Asparagus Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

For the lemon vinaigrette:
Into a blender add the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, salt, Dijon mustard and black pepper. With the blender running on low speed, drizzle the olive into the other ingredients to create an emulsion. Put dressing in a serving container, cover and refrigerate while preparing salad.

For the salad:
In a small frying pan over medium heat, fry pancetta just until crispy. Do not over cook. Remove pancetta onto several stacked paper towels to drain. Set aside.

Prepare a vegetable steamer and bring water to a boil. While water is heating, diagonally cut the asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Place asparagus in the steamer and steam for 2 minutes. Remove asparagus from steamer and immediately cool under cold running water to stop the cooking process. Drain.

Lightly toss asparagus and purple onion half rings together in a bowl. Divide the mixture into 4 individual serving bowls or salad plates. Top each serving with 1/4 of the grated Parmesan cheese and 1/4 of the pancetta crumbles. Allow each person to add dressing as desired.

Notes:
– Bacon, fried crisp and crumbled, can be substituted for the pancetta.
– Do not overcook the asparagus. It should be crisp-tender.