8 September, 2022

THEO RANDALL'S PACCHERI WITH LEEKS, PARMESAN AND PROSCIUTTO DI PARMA

This delicious recipe comes from chef Theo Randall, probably best known for his time at The River Café, who recently released his new cookbook, The Italian Pantry. Featuring 100 recipes centred around ten core ingredients, this tome of Italian home cooking offers something for everyone

"I first had a leek pasta dish at a restaurant called Da Cesare in Monforte D’Alba back in the mid-90s. It was probably one of the best meals I have ever eaten. The fresh pappardelle was almost orange in colour as it had so much egg yolk in the dough. The leeks had been very slowly cooked and were so sweet in flavour – a great example of how a single ingredient cooked carefully can turn into something amazing. In this recipe I have used paccheri pasta, which is lovely as the sauce gets stuck inside the tubes. I think it has the best texture of all dried pastas. The addition of cream brings out the salty prosciutto di Parma flavour. If you prefer, you can use butter" - Theo Randall

WHAT YOU NEED

6 slices of prosciutto di Parma, sliced
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 leeks, cut into 1cm pieces and thoroughly washed
100ml double cream
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a little sea salt
500g dried paccheri
100g Parmesan, grated, plus extra to serve
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

150g kale

WHAT YOU DO

Step 1. Heat a large, non-stick frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the sliced prosciutto di Parma and cook it for a couple
of minutes until crispy, then remove it from the pan and
set it aside.

Step 2. Add the olive oil to the frying pan, then add the
leeks, and cook them for 20 minutes over a low heat, stirring
occasionally. When the leeks are soft and sticky, add the
cream, parsley, garlic and crispy prosciutto. Stir and keep
everything over a low heat while you cook the paccheri.

Step 3. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to a boil. Add the
paccheri one piece at a time so that the pasta doesn’t stick
together. Stir well (paccheri is a heavy pasta so can stick
to the bottom of the pan if you’re not careful) and cook the
pasta for 3 minutes less than the packet suggests. Use a
slotted spoon to remove the pasta from the water and add
it to the frying pan. Add 2 ladlefuls of pasta cooking water
to the sauce and cook the pasta and sauce together for a
further 2 minutes, stirring all the time.
Step 4. Sprinkle in the Parmesan and toss the pasta so the sauce
emulsifies and coats the tubes. Add a little more pasta water
if you need to. Serve in warmed bowls with extra Parmesan
and black pepper sprinkled on top.