Orecchiette w/Smoked Prosciutto & Asparafries

Zippylip

Prosciutto di Parma is one of those foods that is perfect in its natural state, thinly sliced & unaltered. I of course wanted to see how it would work sliced thick & altered with a little smoke.

To make, trim that wonderful fat off the edges of a 1/3 inch thick slice, render the fat into olive oil, this will form the base of the finished sauce. Build a small fire, 250, pop on a chunk of smoking wood (I used a small piece of JL’s persimmon, thanks buddy), put the main grate on with 2 bunches of bill’s asparafries (fresh asparagus coated in olive oil, salt, pepper & lemon juice), pop on the raised grid for the prosciutto (which I cut into strips & fanned out to increase the surface area exposed to the smoke), close the lid for about 10 minutes, remove the prosciutto & set aside, crank up the heat a bit to put a nice char on the asparagus. Cut everything down into small pieces.

Next, the Orecchiette (little ears in Italian) are made by forming dowels out of fresh pasta dough, cut into pieces about the size of a marble, then find a kid in your house to thumb squash into little ear looking things. This is a rustic pasta & they will each be a little different in size & thickness which will lead to different textures in the final dish, which is always interesting.
To finish, heat the olive oil with prosciutto fat, add some hot pepper flakes to taste, when the fat has finished rendering, add some white wine, toss in the pasta and some pecorino, let it work for a minute or two, then add the asparafries & prosciutto, toss gently & serve (you don’t want to cook the ham any more at this point, just warm it in):

The prosciutto:







The cook:



Fabricating the Orecchiette:










The finished dish:



Wasn’t in the mood for wine, wanted a Black n’ Moose instead:



The wife was not impressed :( , didn’t really like it. I enjoyed it, & will eat all the leftovers .

JPF

That looks great! Man zippy you got soft looking hands too!

Little Steven

Hey Marc,

You been busy. Did you catch one? Good looking pasta.

Steve

lowercasebill

you are a genius... that is drool on the keyboard food.
be sure to check out wegmans for prosciutto they have their house brand and at least two imported brands..
moosehead and guiness .. two of my favorites,, i feel compelled to get out my moosehead hats and guiness t- shirt in honor of this post.
tell mrs. zippy that i will be happy to eat her share :evil:
bill

Buxwheat

How did you get the Guiness to layer out? I've not been successful w/ the draft bottles. The draft cans w/ the widget inside make excellent Black and Tans or whatever ale/lager you choose to mix.

Zippylip

thank you

Zippylip

Yea I did, but not one of those. As Fred Sanford used to say, "you want 5 across yo lip?" - zippy's been catch'n 5 across his lip by the missus, forum over-exposure :ermm: :huh: :ohmy: - got to scarcify

Zippylip

this was a Wegman's purchase, the 2 imported versions are the 'di parma' & 'di danielle'; I was shocked to see the di parma was actually a buck less per pound than the di danielle (which I have never had, but when buying this product, I see no reason to buck tradition & vere off the path, stuck w/what I know) - I didn't consider the house brand, maybe I'll have'm slice me off a sample next week (it is now a weekly ritual as I try & kill time while the girl is in dance class... I roam around that store like a lost kid about to wet his pants).

Cecil

Ya'll are sweet. Outstanding looking food.


Walt

Zippylip

a liver damaging amount of practice :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: - no, really, just lucky

Little Steven

Me too.

They are out at dance and then some dance show so I'm good til about 10.

Steve

Zippylip

you're lucky, I have to sneak away quickly, & upon my return I get the hairy eyeball :evil:

Nature Boy

Dude. It's a good thing your lips aren't zipped. That looks pretty tasty mang!

I haven't had a moosehead in years. Seems, in my mind, like it would go purty good with guinness. I'm partial to the extra stout over the draft though.

Nice cookin bro.
Chris

Little Steven

Dude,

I feel your pain. :blink:

Steve

Big'un

Geeze, you keep making stuff I can't even pronounce! It looked real good! I would help you with the left overs!

rockytopsc

Zippy
Looks great esp. w/ Guinness. Prosciutto's one of those items I'm slowly trying to like.

Zippylip

Hi Little Steven,
This is Mrs. Zippy! Mr. Zippy is full of CRAP!!!!

Zippylip

Hey, I wanted to tell you that your chicken parm post w/spaghetti was outstanding looking, I don't think I got the chance as I was at work - what a great cook

Zippylip

Too late Todd, the girl (featured in the thumb shot) just returned from dance class & is vacuuming up everything that's left :laugh:

Zippylip

Hey Chris, so you didn't freeze off any essential body parts on your trip I see - yea, I like that version of Guinness too, hell, I like'm all

Little Steven

Hi Mrs. Zippylip,

We all know that. So am I. I am Brianna's dad. We are blessed to have such beautiful, understanding and supportive wives and families.

Steve

Zippylip

Hi Little Steven,
You two are lucky! You both have beautiful wives and daughters! We need to get the girls together. Ali is bummed that the Maryland Eggfest is the day of her recital. Maybe we can meet on Sunday!

Little Steven

It would be great. We don't have Brianna's schedule yet but if she doesn't have anything, she and Norma could watch Ali's recital. That way I could get them to come with me.

Steve

Zippylip

Tickets go on sale in March. Let me know and I will get them tickets.

Little Steven

We should know what the comp schedule is within the week or two. his is a non-travel year so the furthest we would go is OH or NY. Hopefully she is off that week.

Steve

lowercasebill

wegmans was on the way to mom's so i have been shopping there every weekend until recently , as you know.. i miss the trip will be going tomorrow afternoon i hope .. next time you go get some duck fat and sautee the fingerling taters in it with fresh rosemary.
mrs zipy made me laugh :laugh:

Zippylip

Hi Bill,
This is Mrs. Zippylip. Maybe I should change my name with my students tomorrow to Mrs. Zippylip?! I hope everyone knows in "Egg World" I AM THE BETTER HALF

Zippylip

We are in the Meadowlands (NJ) in February, Trevose, PA in March, Pittsburgh, PA in April and Orlando, Fl in July (Nationals.) Basically, I live, eat and sleep dance!

Little Steven

Ihear you,

We did the Nationals in Florida last year. I have to get Norma to contact you. Seven days a week thru the dance season and camps, gymnastics and tumbling all summer. We put ballet bars, tap things, mirrors and mats in the basement and when she's not at dance, she's down there.
It's a tough go. Good thing your husband is there to make healthy and delicious meals.

Steve

Zippylip

Healtful?? Is that what you "egg heads" call all the food you make: low fat and low calorie dishes Ali just gave Mr. Zippylip a design for her room. It included full length mirrors and a ballet floor. :laugh:

Little Steven

A lot of Marc's cooks look very healthful. I posted some sauteed kale a couple off weeks ago and he seemed to like it. My personal opinion is, if you cook fresh, with very litle salt, you're way better off than you are with pre packaged food and restaurant stuff. It's not all Southern Barbeque. Brianna was born with a congenital heart defect, Tetrology of Fallot, and she is as healthy and energetic as anyone I have ever seen. I hope that her meals have something to do with that.

Steve