Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Peas, Mushrooms, and Prosciutto Sauce with Cream

(adapted from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking)

Hooray! Italian food! Pasta! Carbohydrates! Honestly, I love all kinds of food, but if I've gone too long without pasta, things get ugly. I just need it. It's my core diet.

I had never tried making a cream sauce before (well, I did a makeshift - but yummy - alfredo or two in college). I had a sense of what I wanted to do, and I read Marcella's recipe for "Peas, Peppers, and Prosciutto Sauce with Cream" to get a sense of the basics and then improvised. While I'm sure I didn't improve on Marcella (is such a thing possible?), this was really delicious. Great for a chilly winter evening, when you need a little fattening up.

This is fast, so you can start the water boiling while you prep the ingredients.

1/2 package mushrooms, sliced and maybe halved
2-3 tbsp butter
4-6 thin slices prosciutto, torn into strips
1 cup small frozen peas, thawed
1 cup light cream ("healthy"!)
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 - 3/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4-1lb pasta

Start by sauteeing the mushrooms in the butter over medium heat with a little salt and ground pepper. When they've softened, add the prosciutto and cook for about a minute. Stir in the peas, cooking for another minute.

Add the cream, along with salt to taste an another grinding of pepper, plus your pinch of nutmeg. Cook, stirring constantly, until the cream thickens.

Toss the sauce with your pasta and add the parmesan and stir. Serve and devour!

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