Pappardelle Pasta

One of the biggest lessons I've learned from cooking in Bangladesh is that you learn to make do. Who cares if straw mushrooms aren't usually used in italian pasta dishes? Use what you've got and hope that it comes close. =)

I picked up a box of Di Cecco's pappardelle pasta at one of the local food markets about a month ago. Since I'm getting ready to end my contract and travel for the month of December before heading back home to the US, I'm making a conscious effort to eat the foods in the cupboards (or give them away). Last night, I felt inspired and made pappardelle with ham, coppa ham, tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes and canned (Chinese) straw mushrooms in a cream sauce, topped with blue cheese.

There was a picture similar to this (above) on the box of the pappardelle pasta that inspired me. I had a small box of heavy whipping cream in the fridge for exactly this purpose. Pappardelle pasta is more fun to eat than fettucini, in my opinion. The noodles are hearty and cream sauces stick nicely to the larger surface. I'm a bit of an extremist - my favorite pastas are pappardelle and angel hair (really think and super thin). I also don't usually like cream sauces unless they've got a lot of flavor. I tend to like tomato based sauces, so a nice cream sauce with tomatoes is a nice blend of the two.

The dish came out surprisingly tasty - substitutions notwithstanding, and I would definitely make it again at home (with the right ingredients):

Sauce:

• Olive oil - enough to coat the pan with just a little extra to spare
• 2 cloves of garlic - smashed (you can take them out after you've browned them in the olive oil for flavor or leave them in the sauce)
• chopped prosciutto, parma ham or smoky bacon (I substituted some coppa ham I bought in Bangkok and ham)
• 1-2 tbs of chopped basil (fresh if you have it - I only had dried)
• fresh (or dried) mushrooms - sliced (I would try fresh shitake or the small brown mushrooms that grow up to be portabellas - I only had canned chinese straw mushrooms available)
• chopped fresh tomatoes
• sliced sun dried tomatoes (in olive oil)
  
• 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (I was lucky enough to have some UHT - super pasteurized heavy whipping cream in the fridge. Ultra pasteurized isn't a very tasty option, but it's better than nothing!)
  
• parmesan or blue cheese crumbles to finish off the dish
  

Start the water boiling for your pasta, according to the directions on the package. I usually throw a few generous tablespoons of kosher salt into the water to help to flavor the pasta. While the water is heating up, get the rest of your ingredients ready and start cooking. You'll have to remember to throw the pasta in the boiling water and watch the cooking pasta as you cook the sauce.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan, brown the garlic and discard (or leave in as desired). Brown the ham or bacon (this gives the sauce the majority of it's smoky, salty flavor). Add the mushrooms and brown with the ham. Finally, toss in the tomatoes (both fresh and sun dried) and pour in the cream. Lower the heat and allow the sauce to simmer and the flavors to come together. Right before the pasta is done, toss in the fresh basil. (If you are using dried basil, throw that into the sauce right after you add the cream to allow the flavor to come out.) Your sauce is done if you can draw a line through the sauce that coats the back of a wooden spoon and the line stays defined. If the sauce runs down through the line you've drawn, let the sauce simmer down just a little more and test again. (If the sauce becomes too thick, you can thin it out with some of the water from the cooking pasta.)

Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. You should only use enough sauce to nice coat the pasta, not drown it. So - if you have more sauce than you need for the pasta, put the desired sauce in the pasta pot (instead of vice versa). You can always save the sauce and add it to hot pasta another day.

Top with fresh chopped parsley, a sprig of basil (for looks) and fresh cheese - either blue or Parmesan depending on the flavor you'd prefer.

It would probably be nice to toss in some fresh or quickly thawed frozen peas at the last minute to serve with the pasta. This is certainly not a low fat dish, but it's a nice pasta to serve to company or when you're feeling a bit indulgent. Yummmmmm!!