ham linguine

Another Martha Stewart "Everyday Food" magazine find (Jan/Feb 2007), and this one was also on an ad. I read this fancy-shmancy magazine to get recipes ... and use the ones in the advertising.

2 cups ham, chopped into medium-sized pieces
1 pound linguine
olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbl capers
1 cup peas, thawed if frozen
2 lemons - zest and juice
sea salt and black pepper
fresh mint
fresh basil

1. Cook pasta as usual.

2. Heat 2 tbl olive oil in skillet. Saute garlic first. Add ham and continue to saute until ham is warm. Add peas and capers, saute for another minute.

3. When the pasta is done and drained, add the pasta a little at a time to the skillet until the balance of pasta to ham/peas is the way you like it. Add lemon zest and juice, salt, pepper, 2 tbl of olive oil. Mix all together until heated through.

4. Remove from heat and toss with fresh mint and basil. Serve immediately.

Extra notes:
1. I used leftover ham from Christmas dinner and it worked great. I used only ONE lemon because the ham had originally been cooked with a pineapple glaze. Two lemons would have been way too much citrus.

2. I skipped the mint.

3. I actually used only about half the amount of pasta it called for to get the balance right. If you need to use the full box of pasta because of the size of your family or whatever, I recommend you add more ham and peas.

4. The ham and stuff in the skillet cooks very fast - you really can start the pasta first and then whip everything else together in the amount of time it takes to cook. That doesn't usually happen for me with cooking because I move pretty slowly.

2 for 50! And it's only Jan. 3rd!