Pappardelle with Roasted Red Peppers and Prosciutto

This is an absolutely delicious dish inspired by the latest issue of La Cucina Italiana. This issue includes a recipe for tagliatelle all'uovo con pepperoni rossi (tagliatelle with red peppers). I've used pappardelle instead of tagliatelle and I've omitted the serrano chiles. I've also added prosciutto.

This dish was easy to put together. It helped that I had some red peppers already roasted and in the refrigerator. Still, a little bit of chopping while the water is coming to a boil then a little bit of saute work while the pasta is cooking is a small commitment of time for such a wonderful dish.

Here is what I used:

extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
2-3 tbsp Italian parsley, chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1 onion, diced
4 oz. prosciutto, diced
1 1/2 large red pepper, roasted, chopped
8.8 oz package of pappardelle
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
shredded parmesean cheese

In a large skillet I drizzled about a teaspoon of olive oil and heated it on medium. Into the pan went the chopped prosciutto. I wasn't in a hurry for it to cook, I have other things to do.

Into my big pasta cooking pot went lots of water, a couple tablespoons of kosher salt and a couple tablespoons of olive oil. I set the heat to high.

While the prosciutto cooked and the water heated up I diced the onion, chopped the garlic and chopped the roasted red peppers. I had scored on some gigantic red peppers last week and roasted and peeled them all. I've got them in the refrigerator and I use them on toast, on pasta, in paella, or just a condiment. We just love them.

By now my pasta water is ready and I added the pasta. I cooked this about 8 minutes.

Once the prosciutto crisped up I removed it from the pan. Into the pan then went a tablespoon of olive oil, the onion and the garlic. I also turned up the heat to medium-high. I cooked the onions and garlic until they each began to color. I added the peppers and the prosciutto and turned off the heat. You could also just set the heat on low.

Now that my pasta is cooked I pulled it out gently with rubber-tipped tongs. I really like the extra cooking water that comes along for the ride when I just take the pasta from the cooking pot to the skillet.

I combined the pasta with all the goodies in my skillet until was nice and moist and glistening. I added some salt (not too much because the pasta water was salted, the prosciutto is salty and I'm going to garnish with parmesean) and black pepper and tossed in the parsley. I added the parmesan right before I dove in with my fork. Just fantastic. We had the left-overs the next night for dinner and it was just as good.