Many people appreciate pasta in its simplest form, with perfectly tender noodles and a rich, flavorful sauce. To upgrade the many types of the dish, there are many garnishes to finish off pasta for a pop of color, varying texture, or more flavor. It’s easy to keep it simple with crushed red pepper or freshly grated parmesan, but there’s another ingredient that will give your pasta an elevated take. No, it’s not lemon zest or shaved truffle, but rather crispy prosciutto.
There are many reasons why you should turn pasta night bougie with a garnish of crispy prosciutto. Prosciutto offers a delicate meaty flavor with saltiness to give more flavor to the top of each bite of pasta. It might even be slightly sweet or earthy depending on what the pig was fed. This works especially well for pasta dishes that don’t already have meat in the sauce. If you have a dinner party with those who avoid meat and those who don’t, it’s an easy garnish to appease the carnivores at the table. And when you turn prosciutto crispy, it’ll add crunch to contrast with the tender pasta and creamy sauce underneath. For aesthetics, the bright red or pink prosciutto will add a pop of color to flat-looking pasta dishes.
Techniques to make crispy prosciutto and how to add it to pasta
You’ve got a few ways to make crispy prosciutto to add to the top of tonight’s pasta. First, you can leave the prosciutto in whole pieces then break it up after it’s crispy. Another option is to cut the prosciutto into pieces, make ribbons, or dice it to crisp it up. When it’s time to cook, setting the oven to about 13 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit is a good starting point. Cook it on a wire rack to ensure both sides get crispy. For those who prefer the handy air fryer, it will be ready in about five minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Or throw it in a pan with a little oil over medium heat and cook until it’s crispy, flipping halfway through.
Basically, any pasta will benefit from crispy prosciutto, but we’ve got some ideas to try. Use it on our lemony shrimp scampi ravioli to top the dish with crunch and a pop of color. It’s also an easy way to add flavor to any type of creamy alfredo, such as our chicken fettuccine alfredo recipe. Our final suggestion is this earthy morel mushroom cream sauce pasta recipe to give it a meaty flare.
