On this blog I like to share all my foody adventures with you. More and more often they are inspired by other bloggers, and as you may have noticed if you have been following my blog for a while, I do not mind at all to blog about the results of trying other blogger’s ideas and giving them credit.
Today’s post is about a simple but very tasty Italian dish (aren’t they all): pasta with peas and ham. I’ve already done a post about pasta with (boiled) ham, peas, and cream, which was inspired by CampariGirl. Today’s version is different in a couple of ways: it uses cured ham (prosciutto crudo) instead of boiled ham (prosciutto cotto), it uses fresh pasta, and it doesn’t use cream. It has also been inspired by another of my favorite bloggers: Josephine of My Home Food That’s Amore. She is a wonderful person who shares her love for simple but tasty Italian food on her blog. Thanks, Jo, for introducing me to quadrucci, a type of fresh pasta that I had not seen before. I love them!
Quadrucci means something like little squares in Italian, and that is exactly what they are: small squares of fresh pasta dough. Even though they are made from the same dough, the result is quite different from fresh tagliolini, tagliatelle or pappardelle. I like the combination with prosciutto and peas. Making this with fresh pasta is quite different from the version with penne.
Even though it is made with fresh pasta made from scratch, this is so easy to prepare that I made it when I came home from work, cheating a little by not allowing the pasta dough to rest for as long as I normally allow it to rest, and not allowing the quadrucci to rest at all. They still turned out fine, probably thanks to my friend the stand mixer. Here’s my version, slightly adapted from Jo’s. (It is interesting to note that Jo’s post was inspired by another blogger, Francesca.)
Ingredients
For 2 servings
2 eggs
200 grams (1 1/4 cup) semola di grano duro rimacinata (semolina flour)
100 grams (3.5 oz) prosciutto, thinly sliced and cut intro strips
1 onion, thinly sliced
150 grams (1 cup) frozen peas (or fresh ones if they are in season)
60 ml (1/4 cup) dry white wine
40 grams (3 Tbsp) butter
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
salt
Preparation
Prepare the pasta dough from the eggs and flour, using my instructions.
Roll out the pasta dough with a pasta machine (or a rolling pin if you prefer — I don’t!) to thin sheets (about 1 mm or 1/24 inch thick).
Dust the sheets of dough with flour to avoid sticking and cut them into squares of about 1.5 cm (3/4 inch) with a pastry wheel or pizza cutter. (I also try to fold the pasta to cut more squares at the same time, but it takes more time that way to peel the quadrucci off each other afterwards.)
Allow the quadrucci to rest while you make the sauce. (Jo said she let them rest for three hours as do many Italian recipes for fresh pasta, but I don’t know why that is.)
Melt 25 grams (2 Tbsp) of the butter in a frying pan and sweat the onion over medium heat until it is soft and fragrant but without browning, about 15 minutes.
Add the prosciutto and the peas and increase the heat to medium. Stir for a minute.
Add the wine and cook, stirring, for a few minutes until the peas are cooked and the wine has reduced to about a tablespoon. You may need to add a little bit of water if the peas aren’t cooked yet, depending on whether the peas were parboiled already.
Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil for the pasta.
When the water boils, add salt and the quadrucci and cook for a minute or so. They cook very quickly, depending on their thickness.
Meanwhile, add the remaining 15 grams (1 Tbsp) of butter to the peas and prosciutto and stir until the butter has melted.
Drain the quadrucci as soon as they are cooked and add them to the peas together with a nice handful of freshly grated parmigiano.
Toss to mix. Taste to find out whether any additional salt is needed. The prosciutto can already be quite salty.
Serve immediately on warm plates.
Flashback
Two years ago I made bounet, a typical dessert from Piemonte, for the first time. It is custard that is flavored with chocolate, rhum, and amaretti cookies, and cooked au bain marie (in the oven or in a sous-vide cooker) with a caramel. It is a great dessert that I’ve cooked many times again, and pairs very well with Barolo Chinato.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
This is one of the very best, classic combinations in a pasta dish. 🙂 Of course, with homemade pasta and good cheese, all of your pasta creations are lovely, Stefan. Best – Shanna
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Thanks, Shanna. In fact, just homemade pasta with good cheese would do the trick 🙂
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Yes, homemade pasta and a great cheese – the quality is what you want, Stefan; agreed. Still, you always put a great twist to any pasta dish. Best, Shanna
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These look great! And way easier than ravioli!
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That’s for sure!
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Classic! Of course… you could always do a fold of some sort with the squares and make up your own bizarre pasta-shape name 🙂
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Some people must have done that and started a traditional shape, like farfalle.
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My favorite is ‘Strozzapreti’ 🙂
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I bet it was fantastic! I make (or, rather, my mother makes and I copy) fresh tagliatelle with prosciutto – never thought of adding peas! Go figure. I love quadrucci (which, in Bologna, we call quadretti – and there you have all the intricacies of the Italian language) in a rich chicken broth. Stefan, you never fail to inspire me and make me feel like a slacker for not cooking on a daily basis!
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I also love fresh tagliatelle with prosciutto and fresh tomato sauce. Quadretti is what I would have guessed to be the dimunutivo. Grazie Claudia per i complimenti — infatti dovresti cucinare ogni giorno 😉
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Huge fun to try as I love and use peapods [call them what you will!] but hardly ever venture into the world of actual peas ~ don’t ask why, ’cause I could not give an answer!! Perchance hated chasing them around the luncheon plate as a bub 😉 !
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I think in the English (and thus Australian) cuisine too many oversized overcooked peas are served as a standard vegetable. If you can get the tiny ones and don’t overcook them, and only have them once in a while, they are quite lovely.
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Very nice, Stefan. Frozen peas are one of those fascinating ingredients. They are almost as good as fresh and most people cannot tell the difference. They pair beautifully with ham of any kind, pasta, parmesan and cream not to mention a whole lot of there things.
As for the flashback, a little ancho chile coupled with the other ingredients would be a nice touch. Also a little whipped cream. 😉
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Frozen peas are actually better than most of the fresh peas available around here (which are often too big and chewy).
Chile pepper in bounet would be sacrilege 😉
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un piatto semplice ma gustosissimo.
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Grazie, Marina 🙂
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This is a classic!You made it so good! In my region “quadrucci” are smaller; By me (and region like Tuscany) there are, like you surely know, the “maltagliati”, with an irregular shape. Congrats!Cris
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Yes I do know about maltagliati. I sometimes prepare them from the trimmings when I make ravioli or tortelli.
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Very nice indeed. I love the simplicity of the pasta.
Best,
Conor
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Thanks, Conor. It’s nice to ‘discover’ new pasta shapes.
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Lovely food you have there! 🙂
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This is a great dish, Stefan. Though we use a different pasta, we, too, have a prosciutto and peas dish that we normally serve in Spring. It’s a great combination of flavors, made even better when you make your own pasta — like you didn’t know that. 🙂
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🙂
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This is one of my favorites, Stefan! The combination of flavors is amazing and your homemade quadrucci are just perfect. Thank you for the kind mention. 🙂
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Non c’è di che! 🙂
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