Ham leftovers masquerade as prosciutto in this recipe. Easter rolls around and I think about ham. That was our family tradition when I was growing up. A ham dinner and an Easter Lamb Cake. But that’s another post. These days, ham means spiral-cut backed ham, with the sugar glaze, in the foil wrapper. Even though you can get it just about anywhere, I don’t think anyone does it as well as Honey-Baked®. Hope there’s one near you!

So, after Easter, there’s a lot of ham left over. Make this a creative opportunity. How many dishes and uses can you invent for your leftover ham? Here’s one that worked out great.

Ingredients

These amounts will get you four servings:

• 1 cup diced ham
• 1 cup frozen peas
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 diced onion
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Salt and pepper
• Your pasta of choice. I used spiral pasta for test, and this was a good choice because it lots of surface area to hold the sauce.

How-To

1. In your pasta pot, boil salted water for 16 oz. of pasta.
2. In a 12″ pan, saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat for five minutes.
3. Add the ham and heat through for two minutes.
4. Add the cream, let it boil, and cook until it reduces to fairly thick consistency. Do the “coat the spoon” test.
5. Add the peas and let them come up to temperature.
6. Drain the pasta and save a cup of the pasta water.
7. Turn off the heat to the pan and grate the cheese over the pan or add already grated cheese.
8. Add the pasta to the pan and mix in thoroughly so that all those little valleys in the pasta get some sauce on them. Add a little pasta water is sauce gets to thick or to extend it.
9. Serve right away and enjoy!