Pasta with Rocket and Prosciutto di Parma

Okay. So just when the last thing on your mind is to prepare a meal and you've about had it, and are starving, try this dish. It took us just as long to make as to cook the pasta.

So here is how this thing went down. While we started a big pot of salted water for 1 pound of linguine we chopped up half a big onion and slowly melted it with a chunk of butter for about five minutes. 

Then Lena quartered 2 handfuls of cherry tomatoes and

tossed them with the onion for another five minutes.

Then she busied herself with 8 slices of prosciutto di Parma, cutting them into small pieces, (A few went mysteriously missing.)

When the pasta was about halfway done, Lena added a 250g pack of mascarpone to the veggies and let it melt to a silky sauce.

We washed 2 handfuls of rocket lettuce (arugula).

And just as all the yummy was getting too much to watch, we tossed it all together, pasta, veggies, rocket, the ham, and some reserved cooking water. Bam! Total fork-lickin' scrumptiousness.

(To the girls' rolling eyes Papa took the opportunity and recounted for the umpteenth time, how as a child he and his folks were crossing the Alps on the way to Sienna, when Papa's dad, Opa, brought the family's old Mercedes to a screeching halt on the market square of some old Italian village. He scampered out of the vehicle and returned within minutes cradling gingerly a whole leg of dry-cured ham. "This, kids," he exclaimed,"is a real Prosciutto di Parma", took a pocket knife, and skillfully cut off thin slices of tasty goodness, passing them around. The traveling party was, of course, within shouting distance of the city limits of Parma.)

We thank Tim Mälzer for the recipe.