[Recipe] Prosciutto-Wrapped Breadsticks, plus Penne Pasta with Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Sauce

Aug 14, 2011 22:24

I had a guest over last night, and decided to delve into a new cookbook I'd just bought -- Giada de Laurentiis' Everyday Italian. A bit of poring through said cookbook later, we decided on an appetizer and a main dish -- prosciutto-wrapped breadsticks (p. 45) and penne pasta with the sun-dried tomato pesto sauce (p. 73). One quick stop by the market for the various ingredients (the total cost of which -- for two packages of fresh basil, the sun-dried tomatoes, the bread dough, the freshly-cut prosciutto, and the pasta -- came to just over $20), and we got to work.

Prosciutto-Wrapped Breadsticks

Ingredients

* 1 11-oz. container refrigerated bread-stick dough (such as Pillsbury) (as the market was lacking in an appropriately-sized breadstick dough container, we simply got one 11-oz container of refrigerated French bread dough instead and diced it up into 24 pieces when we got home)
* 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese (the dry, pre-grated stuff you can get from a bottle seemed to work just as well as fresh here)
* 24 paper-thin slices of prosciutto (about 1 pound)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 large, heavy baking sheets with parchment paper. (Lacking parchment paper, I improvised and simply sprayed the baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray.) Tear the bread-stick dough along the perforations into rectangles. Using a large, sharp knife, cut each dough rectangle lengthwise in half, forming 2 thin strips for each rectangle. Working with one dough strip at a time, coat the dough strips with the Parmesan cheese. Roll each dough strip between your palms and the work surface into a 14-inch long strip, then transfer the dough strips to the prepared baking sheets.

(As we were improvising with our bread dough, the strips ended up nowhere near 14 inches long. That didn't seem to be a real obstacle to tastiness, though.)

2. Bake until the bread sticks are golden brown and crisp, about 20 minutes. Cool the bread sticks completely on the baking sheet. (The bread sticks can be prepared up to this point 8 hours ahead. Store airtight at room temperature.)

3. Wrap one slice of prosciutto around each cooled bread stick, arrange the prosciutto-wrapped bread sticks on a platter, and serve.

Sun-Dried Tomato Pesto Sauce

Ingredients

* 1 (8.5-oz) jar sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil
* 1 cup (packed) fresh basil leaves, de-stemmed
* 2 - 3 garlic cloves (I always like to crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife before adding them to any dish; it helps release the flavor better in my opinion)
* 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese (see above note about use of dry, pre-grated cheese; the same applies here)
* 1/2 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste

Method

1. In the bowl of a food processor, blend the sun-dried tomatoes and their oil with the basil and garlic just until the tomatoes are freshly chopped. Transfer the pesto to a medium bowl, and stir in the cheese and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Season the pesto with more salt and pepper to taste. (This pesto will last for up to 1 week if stored in an airtight container.)

After boiling some penne pasta and prepping these two surprisingly easy dishes, we had a feast with what felt like hardly any effort at all! Although the pesto sauce seemed less like sauce and more like a spread to me, it was surprisingly delicious and served as a perfect counter to the pasta and the prosciutto wrapping the bread. Overall, a very easy and straightforward cooking session, which yielded plenty of leftovers and was well worth the effort. I would absolutely make it again.

Originally crossposted from http://kitchenklutz.dreamwidth.org/15640.html. Please comment here if you first read the post here.

ingredients: prosciutto, ingredients: garlic, ingredients: bread, ingredients: sun-dried tomatoes, ingredients: basil, recipes: italian, recipes: sauce, cooking, recipes: appetizer, ingredients: meat, recipes: pasta, ingredients: cheese

Previous post Next post
Up