I hadn’t intended to cook last night, but you know how life goes sometimes. Raven was originally on to cook yesterday but he had really pressing things to get done, and really couldn’t take the time out to cook dinner too, so I cooked dinner last night. It actually didn’t even turn out all that bad. We had some nice ham left in the fridge, and we still had a big bag of broccoli, and a bag of shredded cheese. With these as my base ingredients, I built up a pretty nice pasta dish.

First off, I had 1/2 a small loaf of rustic garlic bread left from a few days ago. It had started to get too crunchy for me to want to eat plain, but I thought it would add a nice crunchy element to my pasta. I put the bread into the toaster oven and toasted it until it was really crunchy and nice on the outside. (When I try this next time, I’m going to cut the loaf in half first so that  it all gets crunchy, since the middle was still pretty soft after toasting.)

While the bread was toasting I cooked a bag of pasta, then drained it and set it aside to wait for the rest to be done. While the pasta was cooking, I cut up about 2 cups of ham and cooked it in a cast iron skillet until it was nicely browned with tasty crispy bits. I used bacon grease rather than butter or oil in the pan since I had it. Bacon grease just adds so much flavor to a dish that I love using it (when its own rather distinct flavor will not clash with what I’m cooking). Once the ham was cooked I used a slotted spoon to move it out of the pan and put it with my cooked, drained pasta.

I put about 5 cups of broccoli into the pan I just took the ham out of, and added 1/4 cup of water (there was still wonderful tasty bacon fat in the pan too, which you want. If it is all gone when you get to this step, add more. Your broccoli will thank you for the flavor boost). I put a lid over the pan and let the broccoli steam for about 3 minutes, until it was bright green but still firm. While the broccoli was steaming, I cut up my toasted bread into small cubes and set aside (it made about 1 1/2 cups). When the broccoli was ready I took the lid off, added 1/2 cup of cream to the pan, and salt and pepper to taste.

Once the cream had reduced a bit and was starting to coat the broccoli I poured the pan onto the pasta and ham, added 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese and the toasted bread cubes, and tossed it all together.

Ta da! Dinner!!

Here goes at my first attempt at a recipe:

Ham and Broccoli Pasta

2 cups cooked ham, cut into small cubes

1 bag dried pasta of your choice (about 6 servings cooked pasta)

1 1/2 cups garlic bread, toasted and cut into small cubes

1/2 cup cream

1 1/2 cup shredded cheese

5 cups broccoli, cut or torn into small florets

1/4 cup hot water

bacon grease for cooking (or butter or oil)

salt and pepper

—————————————————–

Cook pasta. Drain and set aside in large bowl or pot.

Heat a skillet over medium. Melt bacon grease in the pan and add the ham. Cook ham until beginning to brown. Put ham into bowl with pasta.

In the same skillet, add more bacon grease if needed, water, and broccoli. Cover and allow to cook for approximately 3 minutes until bright green and al dente.

Uncover broccoli and add cream, salt, and pepper. Allow to cook until cream begins to thicken and coat broccoli.

Add broccoli, cheese, and toasted bread cubes to pasta bowl. Mix until cheese is melty and everything is well combined.

Serve immediately.