During the years that I worked as a Restaurant Chef one thing I learned right away was to make all the every course on your menu interesting. Too many times all the emphasis is placed on entree’s which is great if all you want to sell are entree’s, but to be successful you need to interest your guests in more than just an entree, not only does that give your guest a more memorable evening as they savor the different flavors presented to them, it also adds more to the check which helps ensure the success of the restaurant.
One of my favorite courses has always been the Primi Piatti , first course, or in Italy the Pasta Course. This is where you can really make the meal interesting. There are so many different pasta shapes and types to choose from and so many wonderful sauces that the combinations are limitless. If your only choices are a marinara or a meat sauce, well it’s time to find a new restaurant.
One restaurant I opened had a wonderful pasta menu, even allowing you to choose two different pasta’s in a sampler. One of the most popular pasta’s that I made was simply Called Capellini D’angelo Roma. When I wrote the menu for the restaurant the owner had given me the name of the dish and an idea of what it should be, but no recipe and nothing really to go by but instinct. All he knew was it had peas and prosciutto in it and wasn’t a heavy red sauce. As I worked with the recipe it came together perfectly, it had a subtle tomato flavor without the heaviness of a full cream sauce, nicely balanced with the prosciutto and sweet peas. I do have to admit I have never been a fan of Capellini, but that is how the owner had originally been served the dish in Rome and that’s how he wanted it. The sauce itself goes together in about 10 minutes, and is a nice change from a heavier sauce, if you do give it a try, feel free to change up the pasta, or to even serve it with Ravioli. I know you’ll enjoy it!
- 2 Cup Crushed Tomatoes - San Marzano
- 2 cup Heavy Cream
- 2 Cup Chicken Stock
- 1 cup grated Romano Cheese
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 12 oz mushrooms sliced
- 1 cup sweet baby peas
- 4 oz prosciutto cut into strips
- 1 pound Capellini or the pasta of your choice
- black pepper to taste
- 1/2 tsp granulated garlic
- 1/2 tsp granulated onion
- Additional Romano Cheese to serve with dish
- in a sauce pot add the olive oil and mushroom and sautee mushrooms till tender
- add the crushed tomatoes and simmer for a few minutes
- add the chicken stock, and heavy cream, mix well
- add romano cheese, granulated garlic, onion and black pepper, making sure everything is well blended in the sauce, then turn down heat and allow to simmer and reduce to thicken the sauce for about 10 minutes
- remove from heat
- boil water per directions for pasta and cook pasta
- when pasta is 3-4 minutes from being done, place sauce back on medium heat and add peas and prosciutto to sauce, allow to simmer until pasta is ready.*
- then serve immediately
We enjoyed this pasta as a side dish along side of some fresh Fluke I had gotten earlier in the day, it was a nice compliment to the fresh fish, not too heavy but filling. I do think that next time I will try it over spaghetti, but that’s just my preference, I also think you won’t need as much sauce with a thicker pasta. I think this is the first time I have ever seen Lisa eat peas too! I guess it was too much work to pick around them, especially with capellini!
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside my Restaurant Kitchen, I will be featuring some of my favorite sauces from time to time, giving some nice alternatives to marinara!
Till next time, Ciao!
This is my kind of pasta dish–loaded with texture and flavor but quick and easy to make. Love!
That is just a beautiful pasta dish, Dennis! I’m not surprised that Lisa liked it! Have a great week.
Yum!! You’ve got to love a nice plate of pasta!
What a lovely recipe will be trying this out soon. Great food as always Dennis
Fantastic recipe as always Dennis. Other half would like this as it hasn’t got a heavy tomato base.
I love pasta w/ ham, be that prosciutto or cooked. Often times I make a quick pasta sauce like that and my family inhales it as soon as it hits the table.
This looks fabulous! I’m always looking for new Italian dishes to try.
This looks GREAT! I can’t wait to try it out. I’ll post a link to this recipe and your website, cause I know many of my blog readers will also love this.
Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Have a great day,
Laura
Thank Laura! I’m so glad you liked this pasta dish, and I do appreciate the link!
What a beautiful & simple course – I love the pea and proscuitto combination.
I am making this for dinner tonight! This sounds delicious. I love your sauces. Your post a while back about sauce basics totally amped my cooking “game”. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Thanks so much! I hope you enjoy this sauce, its light and delicate, just keep some extra cheese on hand!
Another great recipe! Loving all of those flavors!!
Oh man that sauce sounds decadent. It looks delicious!
This looks amazingly delicious, Dennis. I love pretty much every single ingredient in it. Sooooo trying this.
It’s a wonderful mission – to make all meals more “interesting.” This does have it all – textures, colors and many melded flavors.
This looks absolutely fantastic – creamy and delicate at the same time. Very well done!
That is one nice looking pasta dish! And it only takes 10 minutes to make this delicious sauce? I am definitely going to give it a try. I will try it with Capellini. It will be a nice change from my usual spaghetti.
I honestly don’t usually order pastas when I go out to restaurants: the mark up is high and I always end up thinking, “I could have done this better myself.” But this one I would certainly make an exception for! I bet the San Marzanos are so good in this! I miss having those available, but that reminds me to see if I can add them to my Amazon shipment (I could probably use up a whole case, right!?!?) I hope you’re having a great week!
This looks amazing! I love creamy pasta and this looks perfect! Thanks for sharing 🙂
That close up made me instantly hungry and I love the idea of a tomato cream sauce and Bev will even more. I’m with you on the pasta and prefer a shaped one when the sauce has chunky stuff in it. Another delicious dish added to the try soon list.
Looks great! I’ve made similar but nothing using a creamy sauce like this one. I will have to try this as my whole crew loves pasta and peas, especially prosciutto.
Mmmm Chef, you had me at light sauce. I love everything about this. The subtle tomato, the prosciutto, heck – Id even eat the mushrooms. This sauce sounds like the perfect start to a great supper, just as you intended.
I love all of the flavors in this pasta dish. There is a restaurant here in town that makes a dish very similar to this and it’s my absolute favorite. So happy to have this recipe – I will be making this very soon!
ooo i feel so lucky to be able to try this restaurant grade recipe! it looks like it is going to be my favorite pasta…i can’t wait!
The longer I’m in school the more I’m amazed at the thought and strategy that goes into making a restaurant successful. I’d always been naive enough to think it was just great food and a lot of hard work. But now I can understand and appreciate the a customer’s experience really starts the minute the minute they pull into the parking lot and doesn’t end until you politely usher them out after their meal.
this pasta dish looks absolutely fantastic, can’t wait to try!
we regularly have pasta here and I am always looking for a new version to try. Chef, this is my next pasta dish. I am sure my wife will love it – she is the HUGE past fan in our house.
Great pasta – I adore the combination of peas and prosciutto.
Love this recipe Chef D! You’re amazing!! I always get so hungry reviewing your posts!
Thank you Stephanie!
Yum! I miss cream!
That looks scrumptious! A great mix of flavors, and that cream sauce sounds like something we’d want to lick off the plate!
Dennis, many thanks for posting this on Mike’s link-up (The Culinary Lens) — I was just about to whip up an Alfredo for supper, but a”tomato Alfredo type” sauce sounds even better! (Might have to “pinch hit” with bacon instead of prosciutto… you know me! 🙂 YUM!
I always enjoy your In My Restaurant Kitchen series.. I sometime find cooking at home very trying as scaling things down and just slowing down and enjoying it can take some getting used to…
Thank you Mike!
May I know what type of mushroom should i use?
hi Lynn
I use regular button mushrooms, but you could use baby portabella’s if you like.
Dennis