I love cooking and eating, so naturally when I came across the Tasty Tuesday Competition by @qurator I had to join in on the fun!!!

I give you my new recipe for lemon & herb gammon tagliatelle

I'm not a big fan of cooking from recipes. I like to wonder on the wild side and just do my own thing and that is exactly what I have for you today, let's jump right in!!!

Ingredients

Half a cup of Gammon
1 Lemon (we will be using the juice of one halve and some peel)
1 garlic clove Garlic/teaspoon of shop garlic
1 Handful of Fresh Parsley
1 Heaped table spoon of fresh Origanum
A quarter of an Onion (equal amount to gammon)
Salt & Pepper
100 ml Cream/Milk
100 ml Water (For sauce, the water for the pasta depends on your size pot
1 Ball of Tagliatelle pasta (Want to make it fresh? Check out my recipe for homemade Tagliatelle pasta here.
Half a teaspoon of Corn Flour

(These amounts are for my person taste buds, feel free to use less or more depending on the flavors you like/dislike. Also white wine goes really well in the sauce instead of water but I don't have any at the moment.)

Step 1

Cut the onion and Gammon into small squares. Dice the parsley, origanum and garlic (Leave a branch or two of the parsley for decoration). Cut shavings of the lemon peel and dice.

Step 2

As always get some butter into that pan, this can be substituted by oil/margarine but I prefer butter. (Now is a good time to get a pot on the stove with water, salt and a touch of oil so that it can start to heat up until it reaches a boiling point.)

Next, throw the onion, garlic, parsley and origanum into the frying pan and mix.

Leave it on a low heat to brown and shake/stir every now and then.

Step 3

While we wait on the onions, take the gammon and throw the diced lemon peel on top with a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Then mix it up like a rub and leave to rest.

Step 4

The water should be boiling by now, but before put the pasta into the water taste that it is salty enough. Because the pasta will only be in the water for a short while you want it to be super salty so that the pasta can take it in. (If you are using shop pasta it doesn't need to be as salty as it cooks longer, this recipe is based on using my homemade pasta.)

Put the pasta in the water and let it start cooking.

Step 5

The onions should have developed a nice colour and taste by now so take it off the heat and then add the gammon.

Mix it around and then add lemon juice. It should be very zesty. When we add the sauce it will dull the flavours a bit bringing everything into balance.

Side note, I take the pan of the heat due to the small size of the gammon so with the remaining heat and acid from the lemon juice it cooks through even though it's of the heat, otherwise the meat tends to dry out and become tough.

Step 6

Pour some of the pasta water into the pan and put back on the heat.

Side note, pasta water contains starch that helps thicken up your sauce.

Add the milk or water and let it start cooking on a high heat.

Step 7

To help thicken the sauce take the corn flour and put it in a glass with some tap water.

Mix thoroughly and then add tp the frying pan.

Step 8

The pasta will be cooked by now, strain and add to the plate. I like to make a little bowl in the center were I then put the sauce mixture.

Step 9

Turn the heat off of the frying pan and stir, the sauce should have thickened up a bit, we don't want it to be too thick as we want a light and refreshing meal.

Step 10

Last one on the agenda, add the sauce mixture to the pasta, decorate with the fresh left over parsley and sprinkle with black pepper. There you have it, melt in your mouth tagliatelle pasta with a light and refreshing lemon & herb gammon sauce.

Tasty Tuesday on a Wednesday - Lemon & Herb Gammon Tagliatelle