This comes closest to what they call “Alfredo Sauce” – an Italian-American cream sauce with the addition of parmiggiano. You can prepare this in a manner similar to the lobster with peas and cream, but I tend to prefer to build it in one pan. The cream does darken a bit, but it takes on deeper, richer character that I think matches well with the ham. I like a long pasta, like fettuccini or linguini; the sauce is thick enough to coat every strand, and the peas and ham will disperse evenly without clumping together.
You must eat this all in one sitting; it is impossible to reheat it without separating the fats in the cheese and the cream. Thus, the recipe here is smaller than the rest of most of these pasta recipes.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 TBS olive oil
- 2 TBS white wine or vermouth
- 2 tsp white wine vinegar
- ½ pint heavy cream
- 4 slices ham, sliced match-stick thick
- 4 oz parmiggiano reggiano
- 2 TBS butter
- 4 oz frozen peas
- ½ box of fettuccini
Directions:
Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan, then add the garlic and the onion. Cook for a few minutes until softened but not browned, then deglaze with the white wine and vinegar. Scrape the bottom of the pan and reduce until it is a sec. Add the cream, salt, and pepper. Bring the cream to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook for about 5 minutes until it is reduced slightly, then add the cheese, stirring to incorporate. Let the sauce cook at a low simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 20 minutes, not much more than 30).
While the sauce is cooking, put a large pot of water on to boil; add the pasta when it is ready. At this time, you may mount the cream sauce with butter. If the sauce gets too low while the pasta is cooking, you may restore it with pasta cooking water, chicken stock, or more cream (preference in that order). You do not want this to get too low, however, and should not need to add a large quantity of any of these. If it does get too low, your heat was too probably too high and you should add more cream to begin the process of reduction again. The pasta water and chicken stock each have thickening agents in them (starch and gelatin, respectively) and their additions allow the sauce to expand ever so slightly without changing its character. Adding more cream is stepping back in time – it’s generally too thick to get away with adding just a little bit to thin out the sauce significantly, so you end up changing the character from a reduced cream taste to a fresh cream taste, the way it was 20 minutes ago. You’ll therefore have to spend more time getting it back to the consistency and flavor you want.
When the pasta is about 30 seconds from being done, add the peas to the pasta and the ham to the cream sauce, stirring to thoroughly combine and warm through. Drain the pasta, add to the sauce, toss to coat, and serve immediately, of course, with cheese.
The Grumpy Gastronome 
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