Tagliatelle with Oven-baked Tomato Sugo and Prosciutto di Parma

Last week, I received a whatsup message from a good friend in Madrid, Spain (Hey Em!). She was having friends over and wanted to make dinner for them. During our last visit, I had made a simple pasta dish that she wanted to make for them. Thus, she wondered if I had put the recipe on mostlybeige.com - which I had not. I quickly wrote out the ingredients and instructions and sent them back to her. The next day, she responded that they had “killed it” and that the recipe simply needed to be on the website. The recipe is super simple and doesn’t really require much work beyond chopping the ingredients and boiling some pasta. As can be expected, this dish is mostly beige and - which is even more important - it is absolutely delicious and is sure to please your picky eater!

So, here it is:

Ingredients:

1 ½ lbs. cherry tomatoes

4 garlic gloves

4 scallions

1 tsp dried oregano (or 2 Tbs. fresh)

1 red chilli pepper

4 oz. Prosciutto di Parma

¾ cup olive oil 1 lb tagliatelle (I usually mix regular and green)

Let’s get started:

Heat the oven to 320 degrees.

Cut the cherry tomatoes in half (through the stem).

Mince the garlic gloves.

Cut the scallions into 1/4-inch slices.

Cut the chilli in half and remove the seeds. Do NOT chop the chilli.

Cut the Parma ham into thin strips. Now toss all of it into an oven-safe container - like a gratin dish. Pour the olive oil on top.

Mix it all up. Bake in the oven for one hour, stirring occasionally, until various bits start to char. Roughly 40 minutes into baking the tomato mixture, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the tagliatelle until al dente. Remove the tomato sauce from the oven, drain the pasta, and mix the pasta and sauce. Taste for salt and add to your preference. Serve with freshly-grated Parmigiano Reggiano.