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fettuccine con funghi e prosciutto cotto

fettuccine in a cream sauce with mushrooms and prosciutto cotto

Here’s a recipe which may well be an evolution of Alla Papalina - a cream and pecorino sauce with garlic mushrooms and ham hock. The rise of ‘ready meals’ in the 1980s and 90s witnessed the emergence of many recipes that home cooks then went on to copy, including the ubiquitous ‘ham and mushroom’ pasta variations. And they were popular for good reasons - the classic combination of flavours works perfectly.... what doesn’t always work perfectly is the grey sludge you’ll often find in microwave-ready packaging (or if you add the mushrooms to the cream sauce too early!).

WHAT YOU'LL NEED TO DO
(scroll down for the full method)

  • prepare the mushrooms

  • peel and chop the garlic

  • break up the ham hock / tear ham

  • cook the mushrooms

  • cook the pasta

  • warm the cream, make sauce

  • combine sauce, pasta and ingredients

fettuccine in a cream sauce with mushrooms and prosciutto cotto

INGREDIENTS

FOR FOUR PEOPLE

  • 200g ham hock / cooked ham

  • 500g mushrooms

  • 1 clove garlic

  • 300ml single cream/substitute

  • 2 handfuls pecorino


PASTA 400g

dry fettuccine


MANTECATURA (?)

none

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METHOD

Begin by slicing the mushrooms and cooking in EVO and garlic; add a splash of white wine and cook until very soft and all the liquid has evaporated. Set aside. Gently warm the cream in a pasta wok as the pasta cooks. Don’t let it boil or simmer, you’re just warming it so that it steams! Add pecorino to taste with black pepper, stirring it through the cream.

When the pasta’s cooked, add it to the cream sauce, off the heat, and toss to combine. Add the ham, combine some more and then at the last moment add the mushrooms - the more combining you do with them, the more you risk everything turning grey, so add them quickly and right before you plate each portion. Consider adding a dash of milk too at the first combining stage to stop the dish drying out too quickly!

NUTRITION per serving

  • KCAL: 408

  • Fat (g): 16.5

  • Sat Fat (g): 9.2 

  • Carb (g): 41.6

  • Sug (g): 4.9 

  • Fibre(g): 2.7 

  • Prot (g): 23.7

  • Salt (g): 1.25

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