Spaghetti with Chinese ham and peppers

They might not sound like the perfect pair but the salty and pungent Chinese ham is great with pasta. And you don’t need so much ham to make a flavorful pasta dish. With Chinese ham, a little goes a long, long way. Not that Chinese ham is absolutely essential. Any smoky, salty ham will do just as well.

This spaghetti dish, last Saturday’s dinner, has very few ingredients all of which are pretty much staples in any kitchen where real home-cooking gets done most days of the week. Apart from the Chinese ham and the pasta, there’s onion, bell peppers, milk, butter and cheese. With such simple ingredients, if you are very much able to chop, pour and stir, why order pizza or run to the nearest fast food outlet for the family’s dinner?

Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients :

225 g. of spaghetti, cooked al dente
6 tbsps. of butter
1 large white onion
1 large green bell pepper
1 large red bell pepper
200 g. of Chinese (or other smoky, salty) ham
1-1/2 c. of skim milk
200 to 225 g. of medium cheddar cheese
salt
pepper

Peel and coarsely chop the onion.

Cut the bell peppers in half, scrape out the seeds and cut off the tops and the veins. Chop coarsely.

Chop the ham.

Cut the cheese into very small cubes or grate coarsely.

Melt the butter in a pan. When hot, add the ham and cook for about two minutes. Add the chopped onion and bell peppers and continue cooking, stirring often, until the vegetables start to turn soft.

Add the cooked spaghetti to the pan. Pour in the milk. Add the cheese. Sprinkle with about a teaspoonful of salt. Cook, stirring, until the spaghetti is heated through and the cheese has melted and thickened the sauce. Grind some pepper over the pasta, toss a few times and serve at once.

In the mood for more food?

1. Mapo tofu
2. Adobong kabute sa gata (mushrooms adobo in coconut cream)
3. Bangus (milkfish) fritters, v. 2
4. Bulalo stew
5. Five Cows: ice cream is fine, but…
6. Your kitchen and the environment
7. Braised pork spare ribs
8. How to extract tamarind juice
9. Baking, Crisco and Splenda
10. Infant milk formula

About Pinoy Cook

• About the author
• Cooking philosophy
• Food photography
• The noche buena section
• Product review policy
• Terms of use
• Privacy policy
• Recipe archive
• Published articles
• Food from all over
• E-mail the author

Readers

 Subscribe in a reader

Fish & seafood

• Baked fish and spinach
• Fish fillet with corn sauce
• Baked tahong (mussels)
• Pritong tilapia (fried St. Peter’s fish) and cheese-topped chili-cauliflower bake
• Fish fillets in white wine
• Fried lapu-lapu with pineapple sauce
• Tilapia with shredded corn and coconut cream
• Baked scallops
• Lemon-butter-garlic prawns
• Chili garlic shrimps with coriander paste and Kecap Manis

Superb soups

• Macaroni soup
• Chicken soup for a rainy day
• Bulalo (beef bone marrow) noodle soup
• Cock-a-leekie soup, Pinoy style
• Kalabasa (squash) and potato soup
• Creamed cabbage soup
• Serving idea for store-bought siomai (pork dumplings)
• Kalabasa (squash) soup
• Herbed chicken soup with assorted beans
• Real cream of mushroom soup

Sidenotes