Pronto Pasta Sauce with Prosciutto

Once in a while, I get a serious craving for pasta. This has especially been true since I visited Bologna the last two years.  As I am avoiding wheat, I have found some wonderful gluten free substitutes like DeLallo's corn and rice pasta and recently I found some fresh gluten-free pasta from a company called Manini's that takes only minutes to cook. Be sure to salt the water. My friend Camillo says the water should taste like the sea.

Anyway, I came home so hungry and I wanted to make a sauce and I wanted to make it fast. So, I threw together some garlic, onions, prosciutto and tomatoes and made a sauce in about 5 minutes!  This of course, was after I cut everything up. Since the pasta was fresh and only took a few minutes to cook, I had a lovely bowl of pasta fast! It was so delicious. Of course, you don't need to use gluten-free pasta, but I do recommend a fresh pasta as it is so much more tender and cooks faster.  I usually overlook adding prosciutto to my sauce as I am so fond of ground beef and Italian Sausage, but this sauce was so good that I had to share it with you. It's wonderful! 

Pronto Pasta Sauce with Prosciutto

4 ounces of Prosciutto cut up (I used Applegate Farms with no nitrates)

1/2 cup chopped Onions

1 Garlic clove minced

2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

4 Roma Tomatoes, chopped

8 - 10 Basil Leaves, cut up

8 ounces of Pasta (I used macaroni)

Freshly grated Parmesan Cheese for serving

Fill a pot with water and add salt until you can taste it.  Bring the water to a boil. Put in pasta and cook. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the pasta water and drain the pasta while you make the sauce.

Heat a frying pan and add the Olive Oil then put in the Garlic and Onions.  Saute for about 2 minutes until the onions start to soften. Add in the Prosciutto and cook until it changes color - about another minute. Then add in the tomatoes and cook another 2 minutes or until the tomatoes just start to break down and turn into a sauce. Add the pasta to the pan and then add the reserved cooking liquid. Toss to coat the pasta and cook down the liquid for just a minute and then serve with Parmesan Cheese.

Five Element Analysis

Tomatoes belong to the Fire Element, so that element is covered. The Prosciutto, being a salted pork product contributes the Water Element. The Garlic, Onions, Basil and Parmesan all represent the Metal Element.  The Wood Element is seen in the Olive Oil and also the pasta if it is made with wheat. The one I bought has a lot of seed flour - amaranth and teff and millet, which add more of the Water Element and also has tapioca, sorghum and potato starch, which add the Earth Element.  So only the Wood Element was deficient, so I served it with a kale salad that had a lemon and olive oil dressing to create a five element balance. If you use wheat pasta, this dish will be missing the Earth Element so be sure to bring a food from that element in to balance out the meal and in that case, you can always seve a dessert.