This week for the twenty-sixth recipe I've made for Thirty Minute Thursdays, cooking our way through Giuliano Hazan's Thirty Minute Pasta book with Glennis and Margaret and whoever else wants to join us, I made Penne ai Funghi e Prosciutto (Penne with Mushrooms and Ham), on page 159.
The recipe calls for prosciutto cotto or plain boiled/baked ham, so I used the boiled ham as I could not find the prosciutto cotto which he describes as a ham that is slow-cooked with a minimum of herbs and spices.
The ingredient list: mushrooms, yellow onion, butter, salt, pepper, ham, cream, freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano and penne.
We don't have ham very often, only a few times a year, and we all enjoy eating it, so I was happy to find a recipe that uses ham like this, i.e. this would be perfect for using up the Easter or Christmas ham. I added very little salt as the ham was salty, the pasta water had salt in it, etc., so really that was fine and I would definitely test as you go and add salt sparingly, he doesn't give an exact amount in the recipe, probably for that reason.
The combination of the ham, the cream, the mushrooms, and onions is really nice, not a lot of each, each retains it's own flavor and yet it all blends together nicely. Definitely a repeat.
If you like the looks and sounds of it, buy the book as I am a believer in encouraging people to support the authors who put together these fabulous books by buying a copy, so you won't find the recipes posted from this book here. (Buy it, the recipes are easy, the ingredients are easy to locate, it's not pricey, and there are photos of almost all the recipes.)
