The Hubs Week of Favorites

Since hubs was kind enough to help me this past Saturday with our biggest fundraiser at work - starting at 5 am for an arrival time - and it was so hot and icky - I wanted to thank him.

Luckily for me I'm a planner and I know the way to thank him is always with something yummy he loves to eat. I contacted my mother in law to ask her for his favorite pasta recipe that he adores.

His dad made this for me on one of my first meals with his family and I knew then I had to marry this man just to get this recipe! Ironic that that was like 8 years ago and I just now got the recipe!

Now he claims I didn't make this just like his dad does. I followed the recipe to the T. I think it's because as dinner was starting he decided to "run" to lowes and the cream sauce and cheese had to sit and got congealie - if that's a word - it is now.

We loved it though and probably could have eaten the whole pot the two of us that night, we were so tired and hungry. But instead I've been enjoying the leftovers for lunch this week at work.

This is so worth the calories. I don't even think I'd try lightening it up in any way because it would loose so much. Some of the recipes in life are just meant to be enjoyed and loved - full fat and all.

I know this picture isn't great and I'm sorry - we were so tired we just had the halogen lamp on low instead of the big overhead light and apparently that isn't good for the photography of your fine dining in the family room in your jammies!

This recipe is from Too Busy To Cook: Time-Saving Recipes and Easy Menus from Bon Appetit. Knapp Press (Viking Press), 1981, p. 149, with my father in law's comments about the way he really makes it, at least as of July 15, 2008.

Fettuccine with Peas and Ham

6 -8 Servings

5 tablespoons (5/8 stick) unsalted butter

6 shallots, minced

½ pound mushrooms, sliced

1¼ cups whipping cream

1 10-ounce package frozen tiny peas, thawed

4 ounces boiled ham, chopped

1 cup freshly grated imported Parmesan cheese

1 pound fettuccine, cooked al dente and drained

salt and freshly ground pepper

Additional freshly grated Parmesan (optional)

Heat butter in heavy large non-aluminum skillet.
Add shallots and saute until soft.
Add mushrooms, increase heat to high and cook until mushrooms are very lightly browned.
Add cream and let boil 2 minutes.
Stir in peas and cook about 30 seconds.
Reduce heat to low; blend in ham, cheese and fettuccine and toss until heated, well-combined and sauce clings to pasta.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Turn into heated platter and serve.
Pass additional cheese, if desired.

Sauce can be prepared an hour or so ahead to point of adding peas.

[When I first made this fettuccine, I followed the recipe fairly closely. More recently, I have been increasing the amount of mushrooms a bit. Also, I add only part of the parmesan—maybe 1/3 cup to the skillet while it is still cooking. I wait and add the sauce with the peas, ham etc. to the fettuccine (which I have drained and then replaced in the pot used to cook it), instead of the fettuccine directly to the skillet used to prepare the sauce. First, I put in a little sauce to coat the bottom of the pot, and then add some fettuccine (maybe about ¼ at a time), adding some sauce plus parmesan to each layer and tossing it a bit; then adding the next layer, with some sauce and parmesan, etc. I find that adding all the cheese to the skillet results in much of the cheese sticking the skillet. If you do follow the original recipe, I recommend adding the fettuccine, ham and cheese, in 3-4 separate parts, tossing each a bit; that may be obvious, but it wasn’t to me at first.]