I think it was way back in April that I went on a few runs to Home Goods and discovered their gourmet food section. I grabbed a bunch of pasta I couldn’t find in my usual grocery store without a plan for any of it, but I couldn’t pass them up! One of those bags of pasta was long, wide pappardelle noodles. They are becoming a favorite of mine, and this particular bag is becoming Prosciutto Pasta today. A short, simple name for a dish with big noodles. I like the sound of it!
This prosciutto pasta recipe has a silky cream sauce with fresh tomato, peas, and cooked prosciutto. It’s fast and simple to make!
The Ingredients
So, big ole noodles? Check! The bag of pappardelle I bought was just over a pound, so I weighed out half of it. That’s right, I have enough left to make this again. Insert happy dance!
A quick pass through my kitchen showed me that I had to buy almost everything else. I had salt, pepper, butter, and olive oil plus some homemade Italian seasoning mix. None of the ingredients I needed looked like they would be difficult to find, and I was right.
The olive oil I had was a new product for me, and I liked it so much I wanted to tell you about it (not sponsored!). I always have olive oil around—both extra virgin and regular (a.k.a. light or mild) olive oil. EVOO is so tasty and works well for finishing drizzles, salad dressing, etc. It doesn’t stand up to heat, though, and loses its flavor to boot.
But I happened to come across an olive oil BOGO recently, and I bought some extra virgin olive oil that would stand up to the heat. It was Pompeian Smooth Extra Virgin Olive Oil for Sautéing and Stir-Frying, and I gotta say I was pleased with it. It stood up to the heat of frying without smoking or the flavor going off.
The Process
This Prosciutto Pasta recipe moves fast, so I took the time to do the prep work before I began cooking. The “work” was chopping a tomato, slicing some basil, and micing a couple of cloves of garlic. I also took the time to measure out anything that didn’t need chopping. It took me 7 minutes to do, so just under the 10 minutes listed.
Next, I let a 12-inch skillet preheat with the oil and butter while I put on a salted pot of water for the pappardelle noodles. I took the recipe’s advice and fried the prosciutto in 2 batches so it had plenty of room in the pan. It got nice and crispy, but I was careful not to let it get burnt the way I like my bacon. Prosciutto is too nice for that!
Once the prosciutto was done and draining on paper towels, I moved on to the tomato-cream sauce. It was so easy! A little bit of sauteeing and stirring was all it needed to come together. A quick 5-minute boil to thicken and I finished the sauce by crumbling in some prosciutto and adding the sliced basil.
I had the drained pappardelle waiting in a colander when the sauce was ready. A quick toss in the sauce with a pair of tongs, and I was ready to serve up a couple of big bowls of this luscious Prosciutto Pasta. Topped with grated parmesan plus more prosciutto and basil, of course!
Timing
This recipe lists 10 minutes to prep, 20 minutes to cook, and a total time of 30 minutes. I came in seconds over that! Here’s how it went:
- 7 minutes to prep
- 22 minutes to cook (including pasta)
- 2 minutes to mix
- 31 minutes total
