Garganelli with Prosciutto and Cream Sauce

Directions

For the dough
Heap the flour and salt onto a work surface and fashion it into a well. Crack the eggs into the center and break them up with a fork. Beat in the cheese, and nutmeg. Use your hands to bring the flour into the egg mixture from the inside of the wall and make a dough that holds together. Knead the dough until it is smooth and allow it to rest covered for 30 minutes to relax the gluten.

Cut the dough into 4 pieces and work with one piece at a time, keeping the remainder covered. Roll out each piece using a hand crank pasta machine or rolling pin until the dough is 1/8-inch thick. Trim the dough to 24-inches long and 6 inches wide. Use a pasta wheel and cut the sheet in half lengthwise, then cut eight 3-inch squares from each half. There should be sixteen 3-inch squares. Save and reroll the scraps. Repeat with remaining dough.

Place a new unsharpened pencil or small 1/4-inch wide wooden dowel rod diagonally at a point at one end of the pasta and roll the pasta up on the pencil or rod. Create lines by rolling the pasta over a new clean comb, a butter paddle or if you have one, a chitarra. Slip the garganelli off the end of the pencil or rod and allow them to dry on towels for about 30 minutes before cooking them.

Prosciutto and Cream Sauce
In a large sauté pan (12-14 inches) melt the butter over medium low heat and add the prosciutto and cook for 1 minutes. Slowly stir in the cream and nutmeg. Heat until mixture is uniform in color. Add the cooked garganelli and combine well. Pass the cheese on the side.

This recipe is featured on show 2210 – Special Pasta.