Tag: Hazan

Pasta with Fried Prosciutto and Chives

~ Lara ~ 5 Comments

Do forgive me if two pasta recipes within a week is a bit much. I had to do it! This was simply too good to postpone.

I’ve had this little dish three times in the last five days and just can’t get enough. I wish I could sit everyone I know (and like) down for lunch today and feed them this pasta and then listen to them sing my praises well into the night.

You must make this, I implore you. If you’re skeptical, make it for lunch (less pressure). The hardest work is boiling water. You cook your pasta, toss it with prosciutto sauteed in butter and garnish with parmesan, or for me, a generous handful of chopped chives (since I’m casein free). Out of this world good.

The original recipe’s creator is a certain Guiliano Hazan. Do you recognize the surname? Remember the sultry, smooth Tomato Sauce from Marcella Hazan? Well, this is her son’s recipe.

Apparently good cooking runs in the family.

PASTA WITH FRIED PROSCIUTTO AND CHIVES
Adapted from Orangette, who adapted it from Giuliano Hazan’s 30 Minute Pasta

This is the quintessential one-man meal, as in FEED ME AND ONLY ME RIGHT NOW I’M STARVING SCREW EVERYTHING ELSE (that was stream of conciousness and a little harsh, but sometimes I really feel that way)!  I love, love, love this dish for a quick lunch.

This is the solo version for 1 serving.  If you’re cooking for 4 simply multiply your quantities: 4 oz. prosciutto, 4 tablespoons butter, etc.

Ingredients:

  • 1 ounce prosciutto (about 3 slices), cut into 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick strips
  • 1 tablespoon clarified butter/ghee (or regular butter)
  • 3 ounces dried pasta, preferably egg tagliatelle (I’ve used gluten free penne and even spaghetti with yummy results)
  • salt and pepper
  • fresh chopped chives

    • Optional:

  • freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

    • Heat your butter in a skillet over medium low heat. Add the prosciutto and saute just until the meat has a little color and no longer looks raw. Remove pan from heat.

    Cook your pasta to preferred tenderness in a large pot of well-salted, boiling water. Pour out most of the water from your pot, leaving the cooked pasta and a few tablespoons of cooking liquid. Add the prosciutto and it’s pan juices (butter) to the pasta and pasta liquid. Toss with a spoon to cover the pasta with the sauce. Season well with salt, to taste.

    Serve up and garnish with either a generous sprinkling of chopped chives or Parmigiano-Regiano.  If you’re feeling super crazy try both!  Top with a dash of fresh cracked black pepper.

    Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

    ~ Lara ~ 6 Comments

    I was only recently introduced to the intuitive cooking of Marcella Hazan. Some say she is to Italian cuisine what Julia Child was to French. Some would dispute the comparison. I’m not terribly concerned either way, I just know she can cook.  This is her recipe, and a recipe that has made, and will continue to make, a very regular appearance on our dinner table.

    I am far from the first to recommend this particular tomato sauce.  I saw it ages ago at Orangette, and then Smitten Kitchen (as if either of these weren’t compelling arguments enough), but what really sealed the deal was Rachel’s post. I don’t know if it was the whole 3rd-times-a-charm phenomenon or the fact that everything Rachel makes just looks so homey and right, but I made it.

    And it was really, simply, good.

    To quote Marcella, “No other preparation is more successful in delivering the prodigious satisfactions of Italian cooking than a competently executed sauce with tomatoes…”

     

    TOMATO SAUCE WITH ONION AND BUTTER
    Adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

    Try to find imported San Marzano tomatoes, they do make a difference.  I easily found a can at my grocery store.

    This is a leisurely preparation: a halved onion simmers languidly in tomatoes and butter for the better part of an hour. You sip a glass of wine and stir a few times throughout. Doesn’t it sound nice?

    Really do make this.

    1 (28 ounce) can imported San Marzano tomoatoes (Italian plum tomatoes) with their juice
    5 tablepoons unsalted butter (I used clarified butter)
    1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
    Salt to taste

    Place the tomatoes, butter and halved onion in a sauce pan. Allow to simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes or until the fat floats free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally and gently smash any large tomato chunks with the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust with salt. Discard the onion before serving the sauce over pasta.