Pasta with peas, ham and parmesan

Today we make our little tribute to Italian cuisine. We bring you a recipe to make pasta by transferring our senses to Parma, an Italian region where two products come to us that will surely sound familiar to you: Parma ham and the popular Parmesan cheese.

What we propose is to create a quick and simple dish, perfect for a weekday meal. It is a pasta dish that we make with tagliatelle, but you can use the type of pasta that you like best, and we accompany it with peas, leeks, ham and Parmesan .

Preparing everything will take you 10 minutes, plus about 25 minutes of cooking, it provides you with a complete, healthy, rich dish that is quick to serve. Perfect!

Le Creuset tall nonstick frying pan and Le Creuset wood grinders

Ingredients (for 8 servings)

• 500g tagliatelle pasta
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 to 4 leeks, cut into thin slices
• 4 to 6 garlic cloves, sliced
• 350g frozen peas
• ½ lemon, zest and juice
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

At your service

• Parmesan
• Parma ham, thinly sliced*
• Pea sprouts or fresh mint
• Chili infused oil (see notes)

*You can replace it with Iberian ham.

Instructions

1. In a pot , we put the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. When we have it ready, we drain the pasta and reserve the cooking water.
2. In the same pot and with the reserved water, we can cook the peas for a few minutes, until they soften a bit (but it is interesting that they remain firm).
3. In the tall Le Creuset nonstick frying pan (in our case we used the 28cm one) add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add the sliced ​​leeks and garlic and fry over low-medium heat until softened.
4. Add the peas and the zest and juice of half a lemon. Then we season with salt and pepper to our liking and add the pasta.
5. Mix well, grate the Parmesan cheese on top, arrange the slices of Parma ham, the pea shoots or fresh mint and drizzle with a drizzle of oil flavored with chili.

Grades

• You can use previously grated Parmesan oil, but the truth is that grating it at the moment is worth it, for the freshness and flavor of the freshly grated cheese. For this, you already know that there is nothing like the Zester .
• Regarding the final touch of oil, what we are looking for is a touch of intense flavor, which contrasts and enhances the flavor of the dish. You can use oil flavored with garlic, which always goes so well with pasta, or the typical pizza oil, which is still oil infused with chili or peppers. If you don't have it, you can do it yourself at home: in a small oil can, add some garlic, pepper and peppers or dried chili, and cover with extra virgin olive oil. Allow at least three weeks for the oil to aromatize.
• I cannot finish the recipe without recommending that you serve the pasta with a Bérard fork and spoon set : you will respect the non-stick nature of the pan and enjoy the pleasure of serving with precious olive wood.