the latyoa of the bacon family

i love prosciutto, it's like bacon but so fancy. noone accuses prosciutto of being pedestrian. while carbonara is my favorite, it can be a bit heavy for summer, so i generally replace it with this recipe. it's from some martha stewart magazine but i adjusted/removed some things.

pasta with leeks and prosciutto

-8 oz spaghetti
-4 tbsp butter
-2 med leeks (about a pound), white and light green parts only, quartered lengthwise and cut into 2" strips, cleaned vigorously
-2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
-2 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto (either from the deli or prepackaged) cut into thin strips or further cut into little flat squares of happiness for easier integration into the pasta

when i say cleaned vigorously i mean it, leeks are notoriously sandy. i like to fill my whole sink with cold water, toss the chopped leeks in there, swirl them around, then let the grit settle. then i remove them and let them drain on a paper towel. please buy me a salad spinner.

i like to break the pasta at least in 1/2 before boiling to make mixing all the ingredients easier. while the pasta is cooking, cook the leeks (seasoned with S&P) in 1 tbsp of the butter in a pan large enough to mix all the ingredients. when the pasta is done, drain and reserve 1/2 cup of the water. add pasta, lemon juice, and prosciutto to the leeks with the remaining 3 tbsp of butter, mixing well and seasoning with S&P. slowly add the hot pasta water back until a thin sauce coats the pasta. you won't need all the water.

this doesn't reheat well, the leeks get all boiled cabbage-y. also, if you heat the pasta too long when the prosciutto is in there it will turn into cooked ham. this doesn't taste bad or anything, but if you really want that prosciutto taste you may want to add it after you've set the sauce until you get your timing/heat level all figured out.

the latyoa of the bacon family