Creamy Penne Pasta with Peas and Crispy Prosciutto ready in less than 20 minutes. Its creamy and cozy and oh so-yummy! It has quickly become our new go-to recipe for a healthier cream pasta.
Creamy pasta dishes have always (and will always) be my favourite dishes! I have always loved creamy dishes and carbs of every kind. Putting them together is like watching your two favourite people get married to each other. Sheer excitement!
I also love this dish because it is so darn easy and I can whip it up on a whim. I almost always have the ingredients on hand. We have a cupboard full of pasta and a freezer full of frozen peas. The former because of my love of carbs and the latter because my hubby is absolutely obsessed with peas. He adds them to almost all of his dishes including his breakfasts (savoury, of course, he’s not a weirdo).
The crispy prosciutto is a lovely, salty addition to this dish! So good! If you don’t have any on hand, you can easily sub in bacon or leave it out of the dish altogether. In that case, I suggest adding lots of salty Parmesan on top of your dish to give it that extra salty-kick!
Ingredients in Creamy Penne with Peas and Crispy Prosciutto
- Penne
- Peas
- Olive oil
- Flour
- Milk
- Parmesan
- Dried basil
- Salt and pepper
- Prosciutto
Making creamy pasta with peas and prosciutto
This dish comes together pretty quickly. Its perfect for those times you are hungry and ready to eat and so a quick dinner is essential.
There are three different components for this dish that I cook simultaneously.
First, I get my pasta cooking! Let it boil until it is ready to be drained. Just before its done, I toss in the peas as they don’t really need long to cook.
While the pasta is taking care of itself, I start the pasta sauce. It doesn’t take long to come together so I have the ingredients ready to go and that’s that. The pasta and the sauce tend to be ready around the same time.
I drain the pasta and then put it back in the pot, add the sauce and toss it all.
Then I get to work on the prosciutto. It really only needs a couple of minutes to cook. You can chop it up and then fry it in a skillet or cook it as a full slice. I prefer the full slice and then just crumble it afterwards. Neither way is hard, but the latter is even easier.
All in all, its a super easy but super satisfying dish! Bon appetit!
Ways to make this even healthier and low carb:
- If you are looking to make this a little healthier, I have also made this dish with spaghetti squash or zoodles. All the delicious flavour without all the carbs and calories!
You may also like:
Creamy Spaghetti-Zoodle Primavera
Lemon Parmesan Pasta with Spring Peas
Creamy Penne with Peas and Crispy Prosciutto
Ingredients
- 3 cups penne uncooked
- 3/4 cup peas
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup Parmesan
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 slices prosciutto
Instructions
- Boil penne in salted water, according to package directions. Add the peas in the last few minutes of boiling. Drain. Return to pot.
- Meanwhile, in a pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and add flour. Stir to create a roux. Add the milk, Parmesan and basil and whisk together until it begins to thicken. Remove from heat.
- Pour sauce over the penne and toss together. Salt and pepper to taste.
- In a skillet, drizzle a little of olive oil and add the prosciutto slices, making sure not to overlap. If there is not enough room in your skillet, do this in batches. Cook them for a couple of minutes, flipping until it begins to shrivel up and get a little crispy. Remove it from the pan and let it cool. It will crisp up more as it sits. Chop or crumble it with your hands over the pasta dishes. Add extra grated Parmesan if desired.
