Baked Penne with Prosciutto

I had a pound of prosciutto sitting in my fridge and couldn't think of what to do with it until I thought about a baked ziti!  I didn't have any ziti so penne pinch hit last night.  I love making pink sauces for my pasta so the pint of heavy cream I had left in the fridge came in handy!  I also still had some fresh mozzarella so I decided to slice it and serve it with tomatoes.  Once I figured out that I had too much breadcrumbs left over from my penne topping I decided to coat some mozzarella slices and do a version of fried mozzarella.  


First I boiled my pasta with a whole clove of garlic in the water.  I pretty much use garlic for everything!  It just rocks!  While my penne was cooking I started to prepare my sauce by simmering 1 pint of heavy cream with 2 minced cloves of garlic.  After about 3 minutes I added 1 pint of marinara sauce.  There are great marinara sauces out there so there's no need to make your own.  Once the sauce started bubbling on medium heat I added about 2 tsps of... wait for it... wait for it... nutmeg!  I pretty much add nutmeg to most of my sauces, stews, or soups.  Not as much as I added on this one though.  I wanted the nutmeg to really stand out on this dish and if this nutmeg was a president it would stand out like Obama on an all US presidents head-shots poster!  Once my penne was done I salted it, drained it, and poured it on a casserole dish.  I then added 1 cup of parmesan cheese, half a cup of chopped up provolone, some salt, and crushed red pepper to my sauce.  Once the cheese blended in I evenly poured everything on top of the penne.  


Using a mixture of italian breadcrumbs and panko breadcrumbs I started to prepare my topping.  I used 1 cup but next time I'll probably use half of that.  I got one of my big bowls and added 3 tbls of butter, 1 cup of chopped fresh mozzarella, 1 tbls of chopped fresh thyme, and some salt and pepper.  I squeezed it all together with my hands until the butter was pretty much blended in.  After that it was pretty easy!  I layered the top of the penne with the breadcrumbs, preheated the oven to 350, and baked it for 20 minutes!  

For the appetizer I played around with doing a fried mozzarella but even though it tasted good it wasn't the result I was looking for looks wise.  I guess fresh mozzarella isn't cut out for this.  The sliced mozzarella with vine tomatoes and spinach came out great though!  I dropped a little extra virgin olive oil on them and it was perfect! 





I was really happy with how this dish turned out.  It was a perfect way to make use of the prosciutto I had left over.  I will definitely be making this again and I encourage you to try it also!  You will not regret using the nutmeg like I did.   I'm never afraid of seasoning and most of the time I'm happy with the results... but I guess more importantly those who are eating my food are also happy.