Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Penne with Prosciutto & Butter

Wow, this was much better than I anticipated and was really delightful! Highly recommend this one.

The recipe is from the Williams Sonoma pasta cookbook.

1 lb Penne
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 lb thinly sliced prosciutto
1/2 cup butter, unsalted
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced (Vidalia)
1/2 cup chicken stock/broth
Zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Fresh ground black pepper
Handful, chopped, parsley
5 sage leaves, chopped
Parmesan Cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Generously salt the boiling water, add the pasta, and cook until al dente, 10-12 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim the prosciutto of excess fat and cut the slices into narrow strips. Heat the olive oil to high is a saute pan, add the prosciutto and toss, saute for about 2 minutes. Set aside.

In the same pan, over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and saute until soft, about 4 minutes. Add the stock and simmer for about 1 minute, maybe 2. Allow to reduce. Toss in sage, stir to combine.

Drain the pasta well and place in a large, shallow, warmed bowl. Add the prosciutto, lemon zest, nutmeg, pepper to taste, parsley. Pour on the stock/onion mixture and toss well. Add about 3 TB of the cheese and toss again. Garnish with some more parsley and pass remaining cheese at the table.

Serves 4 as a main-course or 6 first-course servings.


Prosciutto
The famous sweet salt-cured ham from the Parma region, prosciutto di parma, is now widely available outside of Italy. Other hams can be salty by comparison and less subtle in flavor. When the clerk slices prosciutto for you, make sure it is very thin and the pieces are separated by paper or plastic so that they do not stick together and tear.

3 comments:

ScottE. said...

BTW: this was really easy...took only as long as it took the pasta to cook. Yum Yum!

Dancer in DC said...

Quick, easy, delicious. The only significant expense is the prosciutto, but you don't need more than a package. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Tonight I tried the penne pasta butter sage dish. But I cheated and substituted my way through
the majority of the recipe. But it still turned out pretty good. I decided prosciutto was a bit too expensive,it would’ve cost almost $10, so I decided to try ham or something else. What I decided on was turkey bacon (mostly because it was on sale). I figured with all the butter, perhaps a low fat meat was in order. I made due with lemon peel from the spice aisle, versus fresh, (this way I have
lemon peel on the shelf when I need it) and ground nutmeg from my spice rack, versus fresh. Oh, and I
made my own broth with bullion, versus canned or cartoned chicken stock. Overall, I really enjoyed
it, even with my substitutions. I love prosciutto, so I’m sure I’d like this dish even more with the real thing, but the turkey bacon worked out quite well.