Tortellini Straw and Hay

Well hello you...and hello Monday.  This weekend we had three weddings, wait let me clarify, we had three weddings on Saturday.  We were able to make it to the ceremony of two and the reception for the other.  It was a busy day to say the least but we were lucky enough to make it to each one and had a great time jamming out in the car on the way.  

As usual, we were not feeling 100% the day after all of these weddings.  It helped that we stayed at Mr. Schwartz's parents house and that THE Mrs. Schwartz made an amazing breakfast of egg bake, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit.  However, fully moving out of and cleaning the apartment did really take a toll on us, well more like me.  So, I thought for a treat and our sanity, I made one of my favorite pastas: Tortellini Stray and Hay.

This is a dish that brings me back, waaaaay back.  There is a restaurant in the town I grew up called Ciatti's.  We would go there for special occasions, mainly my birthday because I got to pick.  EVERY time I would get the Tortellini Straw and Hay--no mushrooms.  Yes, as you are now aware, I am a fan of the mushrooms and you will see there are no mushrooms in this dish today.  I ran out. We were tired and I didn't want to go to the store.  

Anyway, this is a super easy pasta dish to make and only takes a few minutes to put together--even if you are tired all the way down to your bones.  

Enjoy and Happy Monday....

Musical Selection: Learning to Fly by Tom Petty.  Very chill and relaxing Monday tune. 

Start by dicing up your ham.

Add it to a large skillet.  Okay, here is where I messed up, brown it up a bit, it will really increase the flavor.  If you forget because you are super hungry like I was, no biggie.

Here is my pasta of choice....Ciatti's uses green and white tortellini so I do too.  You can totally use whatever tortellini makes your skirt fly up.

Cook it....on a light boil because otherwise the bubbles will be to violent and make your tortellini open up. You don't want that.

Okay, I skipped a picture....it was of me pouring the peas into the pan with the ham.  Don't forget to do that...cook the peas until they are just done.  Mushy peas are gross.  After they are cooked, take them off the heat on a plate like so.

Toss some butter in the pan that you just used.  I never said this was a health food.

Put a good amount of garlic into the pan.  I used the cheater garlic but fresh would be best in this dish...I would have added even more garlic after tasting the whole shooting match together.

Let this bubble up and the garlic get a little browned.

Add the heavy cream.  I know, not health food but that's not what I was promising this time.

Pepper....

Salt...and my man hand.

Cooked tortellini....

Okay, you can't really see it in this picture but bring the sauce up to a small simmer.  This won't take very long but make sure you are stirring this the whole time.

Then add the parmesan cheese.  I'm not typically a fan of the "green can" parm but, for this recipe grated parm works best.  If you have had the Tortellini Straw and Hay at Ciatti's you know that the sauce is very gritty with parmesan cheese.  This doesn't sound very good but its amazing. Still trying to master this...

Add the peas and ham into the sauce.

Give it a little stir.

Add the noodles...

Heat until warm all the way through.

Top with shredded parm and parsley.

MMmm....LOTS of peas sauce and ham.  Two happy tummies!


Tortellini Straw and Hay


Ingredients
1 Large package of cheese filled tortellini
1 package frozen peas
1 cup (about) of chopped ham
1 stick of butter
2 tablespoons of garlic
1 pint of heavy whipping cream
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste
parsley and shredded (or grated) parmesan cheese for garnish

Preparation
Start by browning ham in a large skillet.  Add peas once ham is nice and browned. Cook the peas with the ham for about 2 minutes or until they are cooked but not mushy. Remove the peas and ham from the pan and set a side.

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the tortellini.  Be sure to not over cook.  Strain and put aside.

Add the butter and garlic into the pan.  Cook until the garlic begins to brown but does not burn.  Add the cream and bring to a bubble stirring constantly.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the grated parmesan cheese to the cream mixture.  Stir.

Return the peas and ham to the pan. Stir.  Add the noodles to the sauce and stir.  Heat until warm through.

Garnish with parsley and shredded (or grated) parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Recipe by: Mrs. Schwartz