Recipe: creamy spaghetti

You know I love my quick and easy meals and today I have another recipe for you that will give you just that. Pasta is always a good idea in my book, and combined with cooking cream, some ham and plenty of veggies, you can do no wrong. This is my recipe for a creamy pasta.

Comfort food right there!

This particular version was done with spaghetti, but you could also use other pasta if you’d like. Penne would be good as well as Farfalle or Rigatoni. I just happened to have spaghetti lying about when I decided to make this so that is what I went with. And yes, I took these pictures a year ago. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t make this dish more often. Right, let’s get to it.

Total time: 30 mins. Prep time: 10 mins. Cooking time 20 mins. Serves: 6 – 8.

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti (I used Kamut)
• Cooking cream
• Green beans
• Leak
• Red bell pepper
• Mushrooms
• Ham strips

You’ll also need two pans: one for boiling the pasta and one for preparing your creamy sauce. To flavor it up, I used some garlic, oregano, basil and thyme. Maybe a little bit of extra pepper to give it a bit more of a bite, but I usually stray away from adding salt. Neither am I too big a fan of onions, but a small onion would also go lovely with this dish.

Step 1: Boil your spaghetti according to the packaging. I usually opt for wheat free or gluten free pasta which usually needs a little bit of extra time to cook.

Step 2: Cut your green beans, wash them and bring to a boil. Boil them until they are almost cook. You don’t want to cook them for too long as you still have to bring the dish together in a skillet at the end.

Step 3: Add you cut leaks and garlic to a hot pan that has been drizzled with some olive oil.

Step 4: When cooked, add your ham. Keep on stirring until the ham starts to cook and fry up a little bit. Let it brown slightly along the edges.

Step 5: By now your green beans should be done. Add them to your skillet.

Step 6: Add your chopped bell pepper and mushrooms. Make sure you combine everything well and fry everything up until your bell pepper is cooked and the mushrooms have shrunk.

Step 7: I nearly forgot to add seasoning. It’s better to do this at an earlier stage. That way you’ll get more of the flavor. I usually get my seasonings in at the meat stage, so right after I added the ham. But this time I had to make do with adding it nearly at the end. Make sure that whatever you do, that you give the seasonings enough time for it to release its flavors.

Step 8: Add your cooking cream. Now the one I used (creme fraiche) starts solid but will melt down into a creamy sauce instantly. You can also buy straight up cooking cream if that’s what you prefer.

I absolutely love the combination of ham, green beans, mushrooms and a creamy sauce when it comes to pasta. But I always feel that isn’t enough on the veggie front so I usually add in some other veggies I may have lying about. That’s what happened here and what I usually do. In short, this is the type of dish you can easily throw together and use up left over veggies you may still have lying about. It is also absolutely lovely with a good deal of spinach and a touch of blue cheese. And it’s a nice change up from the usual tomato based pasta sauces.

What is your favorite pasta sauce?