Leek and Mushroom Pasta with Crispy Prosciutto

I've been making a variation of this pasta for years. It's super easy and comforting, but also seems to be a fan favourite whenever I make it. Feel free to have a play around with it - herbs are a good way of changing this. I use parsley here, but thyme, rosemary, basil or tarragon would be lovely with it. The method for cooking the mushrooms will stand you in good stead generally. Recipe below:

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 large leek

• 2 cloves garlic

• 250g chestnut mushrooms

• 6-8 slices of prosciutto/parma ham

• 150ml white wine

• 250g mascarpone

• 500g wide pasta (tagliatelle, paparadelle or lasagne sheets broken up)

• 20g parsley

• 1 lemon

• Parmesan to serve

Method

1. Clean and finely chop the leek by trimming the green end, splitting it down the middle lengthways, washing thoroughly and slicing each half thinly. Finely mince your garlic cloves and slice your mushrooms.

2. In a wide frying pan on a medium/high heat, add in the parma ham wafers (do not stack on top of each other). Cook until crisp on one side, then flip and crisp the other side. Remove and set aside.

3. In the same pan, add your sliced mushrooms in 1 layer with no oil - do not overcrowd the pan. Cook until the water has evaporated from each mushroom - they should be brown and toasted on one side. Flip the mushrooms over and cook until they are brown and toasted all over, with no water coming out. Set aside and repeat with the remaining mushrooms.

4. In the same pan, add in some olive oil and the chopped leeks and garlic and turn to a medium heat. Cook until translucent and sweated down. Add in the white wine and reduce. Add back in the mushrooms and the tub of mascarpone and stir until the mascarpone is melted.

5. Bring a large saucepan of water up to the boil and season the water heavily with salt. Cook your chosen pasta to 1 min less than packet instructions.

6. Add pasta water to your sauce as necessary to loosen. Finely chop your parsley and add most of it to your sauce, along with the zest from the lemon and ½ of the juice.

7. Once the pasta is cooked, add it to the sauce, reserving some pasta water as needed. Toss to combine, then add pasta water, parmesan and seasoning as needed. To serve, scatter over remaining parsley, grated parmesan and crumble over the crispy parma ham.

As always, please give me a shout if you do make this - @otcooks_eats on Insta.

Much love,

OT x