A Hearty Ina Garten Recipe for Winter Dinners

Day 1: I Had a Bad Day, So I Decided to Roast Something

Day 2: How I’ll Make a Brussels Sprouts Believer Outta You!

Day 3: Is that a Geoduck or a Parsnip?

Pasta is HANDS DOWN my favorite food. (runner ups are sour gummy worms, which is hardly a food, and steak.)

I decided to take a break from meat as a main course and serve up some delicious pasta!  Today’s recipe is Ina Garten’s “Straw and Hay with Gorgonzola.”

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces prosciutto, cut crosswise in ½-inch-thick matchsticks

1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 large)

1 tablespoon minced garlic (3 cloves)

1 ½ cups heavy cream

4 ounces Italian Gorgonzola dolce, crumbled

1 ½ teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

8-10 ounces tagliatelle or fettuccine

2 cups frozen peas, defrosted

½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

¼ cup julienned fresh basil leaves

1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt

I feel like most good recipes start with a few tablespoons of butter—this recipe is no different. To begin, I melted 2 tablespoons in a large saute pan over medium heat. Next, I added in my meat. I used thinly-sliced Genoa salami (the same stuff from the Brussels Sprouts recipe) that I had cut into thin strips. After cooking for 5 minutes (the cook time is the same for prosciutto), I removed the salami from the pan and set aside.

Meanwhile, I filled a large pot with water for the pasta and brought it to a boil.

(And back to the sauce…)

Next, I added 1 tablespoon of butter and onion to the saute pan and cooked for 5 minutes.  Then, I added the minced garlic.

After cooking the garlic with the onion for about a minute, I added the heavy cream, salt, pepper, and the cheese** to the pan and brought the sauce to a boil. Then, I lowered the heat and simmered the sauce until it thickened (about 5 minutes).  In the other pot, I added the pasta to the boiling water and cooked.

**I actually used Parmesan instead of Gorgonzola in the sauce–I’m a big Parmesan fan.

When the sauce was almost done, I drained the cooked pasta, saving a few cups of pasta water.

I added the pasta to the saute pan and added the peas, Genoa salami, basil, 1 cup of pasta water and mixed it well.

After plating the pasta, I sprinkled more Parmesan cheese on top.

This dish is creamy, hearty, and, most importantly, extremely tasty! (It also reheats well)

Enjoy!