Week 2: Prosciutto and Pasta for Mom

It was my Mom's birthday this week so I decided to cook her dinner. This time I picked a recipe that has some of the ingredients she thoroughly enjoys: peas, tomatoes, and prosciutto.

Prosciutto, according to LifeInItaly.com, is a specialty Italian meat that comes in two varieties, prosciutto crudo and prosciutto cotto, or raw prosciutto and cooked prosciutto, respectively. The origin of this savory meat dates back to the Roman times, when prosciutto crudo was first created and consumed. Taking only the best pigs fed only the right foods, the meat is taken through a process of trimming, skinning, salting, air curing, greasing, and then curing again. The entire process takes about one or two years and the result is an amazing thin piece of meat with an incredible flavor. Each province of modern day Italy has their own special way of creating the prosciutto but all areas use a similar process with exception to the time each step takes. Each variety of prosciutto holds an intense flavor, salty undertones, and a dry texture.

To accentuate the prosciutto, I selected this week's recipe from the cookbook Biba's Italian Kitchen. Biba Caggiano is a restaurant owner in Sacramento, Biba's, that my mother and I have visited. It remains one of the best Italian restaurants, and if anyone knows how to use prosciutto correctly, it's Biba. I chose the recipe located on page 82 in the Pasta section titled, "Bow Ties with Prosciutto, Peas, and Fresh Tomatoes. The recipe does include instructions on how to make the bow ties themselves and as tempting as that was, I decided to cheat and pick up the dry kind instead.

The sauce was pretty easy to create and only included a few ingredients, peas, butter, yellow onion, prosciutto, wine and tomatoes, but turned into something very tasty. Prep time was simple, chop here, chop there and you're done. Cook time was also short (under an hour) and easy (there were little more than four steps).

The result was an interesting combination of flavors that made a rich chunky sauce and when consumed with the bow ties it was excellent. I particularly liked how the peas interacted with the prosciutto, creating a hearty texture and the rich salty flavor of the meat complimented each other. It was a successful blend of flavor, texture and seasoning.

On a final note about the cookbook, I have never cooked this recipe, but I have cooked from this book before and each recipe is better than the last. It has pastas and pizzas, calzonies and poultry. Just about every authentic Italian dish from the real italy (as my grandfather would call it), and the instructions to make it all from scratch, dough, pasta, gnocchi, sauces and desserts. I highly recommend this cookbook for anyone wanting to learn great Italian cooking.