Pea and Ham Pasta

Fill a large saucepan with water and add good pinch of salt, put it on the hob and heat it until its boiling. Once boiling add in your dried pasta and cook according to the packaging. There's a tip a few steps below in case your pasta is cooked quicker then your sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, in a sauté or deep frying pan add the oil and turn on to a medium heat. Once the oil is heated add your diced onions and gently sauté for around 4 minutes until they begin to soften.

After the 4 minutes add in the garlic and cook gently for 2 minutes, ensuring it doesn't burn, so keep an eye on it.

Now add a good crack of fresh black pepper, we won't add salt at this point because the ham and stock will be salty, remember, we can always add more but never take it back out so we'll wait for the dish to come together have a taste and then add salt if need be.

Now add the cooked ham, peas and stock, turn the heat up slightly and cover the pan with either a lid or some tin foil. Leave for 2 minutes, this will help cook the peas.

After a couple of minutes carefully remove the lid, be careful of the steam, turn the heat up and let the liquid reduce by half, this should just take a minute or two.

Your pasta may be done by now so drain it, and if like me your sauce isn't quite ready just drizzle with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and stir it in, this will coat the pasta and stop it clumping together while we finish our sauce.

Back to the sauce..

Reduce the heat and stir in the double cream, add in about 2tbsp of your chopped parsley. Give it a good mix and then have a taste you can adjust the salt and pepper to your taste if you think it needs a little more.

Now pour in your pasta and stir to coat.

Dish up and sprinkle each portion with a little more parsley and parmesan if your using it.

Enjoy!!