This simple but tasty pasta dish is great for a weekday meal, especially since all the ingredients can be purchased quite a long time in advance. Thanks to CampariGirl to remind me to make this again.
The only important thing to remember here is to use good ham, preferably the kind that only has pork and salt as its ingredients. A good ham really makes this shine.
Ingredients
For 2 servings
150-200 grams (.33 – .44 lb) penne pasta
100-150 grams (5 oz) ham, in cubes
150 grams (1 cup) frozen peas
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground white pepper
60 ml (1/4 cup) fresh cream
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
Preparation
Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan and add the onion.
Sauté over medium-low heat until the onion is soft and golden.
Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Add pasta and salt and cook al dente according in the time indicated on the package.
Add the peas to the onions; it is okay if they are still frozen. Sauté for a few minutes.
Add the ham and sauté for another minute.
Add the cream. You only need enough cream to just lightly coat everything.
Stir to mix.
Drain the pasta and add it together with freshly grated parmigiano.
Toss to mix. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and freshly ground white pepper.
Serve immediately on warm plates.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
And people think cooking is so hard! Beautiful and simple.
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I have a reputation for cooking complicated recipes. Sometimes I’m asked “wow, this is good, how did you do this?” and I just say “I got good ingredients and did almost nothing with them”.
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In a tart review of a new restaurant, San Francisco’s Patricia Unterman observed that since they used the finest ingredients, their best dishes were the ones they’d done the least to.
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That is why sourcing the best ingredients is so important, and for a home cook often takes more effort than preparing the dish.
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Thank you Stefan!
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Non c’è di che 🙂
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That looks fabulously tasty! I like it. The simple things of life. 🙂
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Exactly. I have to remind myself sometimes, from all this blogging I sometimes come home from work to find myself cooking for an hour because I thought that would be a good idea when I planned out the week on Friday…
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I love this dish, Stefan. It displays all that is good about Italian food. Simple preparation and fresh ingredients result in a tasty dish.
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🙂
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