One Pot Leftover Ham and Pea Pasta

4.84 from 12 votes

One Pot Leftover Ham and Pea Pasta

This quick and easy pasta puts your Sunday roast leftovers to a good use with minimum effort on your part. Perfect midweek meal with all the flavour and minimum washing up.

Course Family Meal, Main Course, Midweek Dinner, One Pot, Pasta

Cuisine American, British, International

Keyword One pot, leftover ham, pasta

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Total Time 30

Servings people

Calories 454kcal

Author Jo Allison

Ingredients

350 g wholewheat penne pasta or any pasta type you like
1 large leek (white and light green part) cleaned and thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves finely chopped/ minced
25 g unsalted butter
250-300 g leftover ham or gammon roughly chopped/cubed
200 g frozen peas
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
170-200 g Gruyere cheese grated
1 ltr water or ham poaching liquid
parmesan (to serve) optional
freshly parsley (to serve) optional

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Prepare the leek by cutting it in half (lengthwise) and running it under the cold tap. Separate the layers but only enough to wash out the grit, otherwise leaving the leek intact. Once clean, go ahead and slice each half nice and thin.
Melt butter in a large, casserole style pot and add sliced leeks. Fry them gently on a medium heat until softened but not coloured stirring frequently approx 8-10 min.
Add chopped/minced garlic and fry for another minute or so stirring.
Add pasta and ham followed immediately by ham poaching liquid or water and dijon mustard. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Give everything a good stir, increase the heat to high and bring it to boil.
Pop the lid on, lower the heat and simmer gently for 12 minutes.
When the time is up, take the lid off and give the pasta a good stir (it will be quite saucy). Add frozen peas and cook for a couple of minutes until defrosted.
Follow with grated gruyere cheese and mix well.
Serve with more cheese sprinkled over if desired and some freshly chopped parsley.

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate and should be treated as a guideline only.
Feel free to use any shape of pasta you like. You could also use regular pasta instead of wholewheat but make sure to check doneness of your pasta at around 10min to prevent overcooking (you want pasta to have a slight bite to it, be al dente).
Substitute Gruyere with any other Swiss cheese, French Comte, Norwegian Jarlsberg. If you don't have any of the above, cheddar will do (preferably not the mature one on this occasion).

Nutrition