Food Fridays: Spaghetti with spinach, snap peas and prosciutto

Alrighty then, like I said yesterday, this is among my favorite meals. I freaking love prosciutto. And snap peas/spinach are both on the very, very short list of veggies that I willingly eat. Plus, it's a pretty easy, one-pan (plus the spaghetti pot, obvs) meal. I will say this, however: you really have to do all the prep work before you start cooking. I usually don't, and not pre-prepping makes this recipe super stressful to make. So prep it up! Also, this makes enough for four, and it's kind of hard to cut in half because of the measurements. So...yeah. Okay, enough chatting, here's the recipe. I slightly adapted it from Food Network magazine.


Ingredients:
- 12 ounces spaghetti
- 1/3 cup cooking sherry
- 2 cloves garlic, smashed
- 3 wide strips of lemon peel (I usually use about half of the lemon's worth of peel)
- 5 tbsp butter, sliced into seven or so thin pieces
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
- 1 bunch spinach (about 6 cups), roughly torn/chopped
- 2 cups sugar snap peas (I always use fresh, frozen doesn't really work with this)
- 1/4 pound prosciutto, torn into pieces
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- Parmesan-Romano cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt liberally and add the pasta. Keep an eye on it; you'll cook it to just al dente.

While that's happening, bring the wine, garlic and lemon peel to a simmer in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it's simmering, add the butter one or two slices at a time, whisking as it melts. Keep whisking until all the butter's melted, then add the olive oil one tablespoon at a time. (While still whisking. I know, it's a lot of whisking. Bear with me.)

Add about a teaspoon of salt, and pepper to taste. Add the snap peas and cook for about three minutes, then add the spinach and cook until wilted, another couple of minutes. Discard the lemon and garlic. (I usually do this before I add the spinach, actually, because it's kind of hard to pick out once the spinach is all up in there.)

When the pasta's ready, ladle out about 1/4 cup of cooking water and drain the pasta. Throw the spaghetti into the skillet, adding a tablespoon or two of the water. Sprinkle another teaspoon of salt over everything and toss, adding more water as needed to loosen. Sprinkle with a bit of the Parmesan-Romano (which you can find at the grocery store, right next to the regular Parmesan in one of those shelf-safe plastic shakers) and toss some more.

Divide the pasta/veggie mix up among four plates, then top with the prosciutto, parsley and more cheese. And don't worry; this reheats pretty well...just refrigerate the prosciutto separately and don't microwave it. So, dinner for two after all? Sure. I also make this recipe with the same amount of sauce stuff and slightly less pasta, and it works well for Matt and I. We're both pretty voracious eaters :)