Cold-Fighting Pasta (Lemon, Roasted Garlic, and Brussel Sprouts)

It was one of those nights- we were fighting colds and I didn't know what to cook.  The few thoughts running through my mind-
1.  I want soup.
2.  I want to use as many items in the fridge as possible.
3.  What else is good for colds?

This pasta is what resulted.  It was flavorful and delicious! (our colds weren't so bad we couldn't taste)  I used spaghetti, left-over ham, and brussel sprouts because that's what happened to be in our pantry/fridge.  However any pasta, any meat (well, within reason), and I would think even some different veggies would be good.  However, if you're new to brussel sprouts- give them a try.  They're SUPER high in Vitamin C (great for cold-fighting) and actually turned out to be delicious.

Don't hate me if my proportions aren't exact or very specific, I just kind of throw stuff together!

Lemon and Roasted Garlic Pasta with Ham

Ingredients:

1 C. ham chopped medium-sized
1 lemon
1 head of garlic
olive oil
6-8 brussel sprouts (or so)
spaghetti noodles (I made enough for 4 servings and had quite a bit left over)
1 C. finely shredded Italian cheese blend (plus some for garnish)
fresh ground pepper
sea salt

Heat oven to 450.  Chop off head of garlic and drizzle some olive oil inside.  Sprinkle with salt.  Wrap in tin foil and roast in oven while you prepare the rest of the meal.  (probably 25 minutes or so)  (if you can do this ahead of time, I would recommend it so you aren't dealing with a super hot head of garlic)  You can also just peel your garlic and roast individual cloves on a cookie sheet or you can saute them, but I love them roasted!

Throw your ham in a fairly large saute pan.  Let it heat and start to crisp up a bit.  Heat it thoroughly and it will almost start to caramelize a bit.  Remove ham from pan and put to the side.

Heat some olive oil in a fairly large saute pan (1-2 Tbsp).  Zest lemon into olive oil while it is heating up.  Let this saute (on low-medium heat) for a few minutes while you prepare your brussel sprouts.

Prepare brussel sprouts by cutting off the bottoms and peeling off the leaves.  Peel off as many leaves as you can easily (I tossed these in a bowl as I did this so they were confined).  Chop the inside (hearts) of the brussel sprouts.  Throw these in with the leaves and discard the bottoms of the sprouts.  Add the brussel sprouts to your oil/zest.  Add the juice of the whole lemon into this mixture.  Let the brussel sprouts cook for a few minutes on low-medium heat.

Hopefully at this point your garlic is done.  Pull it out and unwrap it so it cools to the touch.

Meanwhile, it's time to prepare your pasta.  I used my "fasta pasta" (some contraption I got that cooks pasta in the microwave- it's actually pretty neat).  However you're doing it, cook your pasta until it is barely al dente (firm to the bite, but cooked thoroughly)  (make sure you don't over cook your pasta)

As your pasta is cooking, add your ham back to the lemon/brussel sprout mixture and heat through.  Hopefully your garlic has cooled enough to touch it.  Squeeze/pop the garlic out into the mixture.  I used my spatula to break up the cloves of garlic a little after I did this so we weren't eating TOO huge of chunks of garlic- but I left them pretty big!  While this is all heating together, add your cheese. I wasn't too scientific about how much cheese I added, maybe a handful and a half or so.  Just enough that it covered everything quite well.  Let the cheese melt over the top of everything else.  When your pasta is al dente, add it directly to the saute pan.  I didn't drain my pasta, but used silicone tongs to grab bunches of it.  I just added as much as I thought looked like a good ratio and stirred it around, making sure the cheese was well-incorporated.  I wanted to lighten things up a little at this point, so I added some of my pasta water (it was already the right temperature) and stirred things up really well.  I probably added 1/2-2/3 C. water.

At this point, grab the plates and plate it up!  I added some fresh shredded cheese on top as well as some fresh ground pepper.  This served the two of us easily (my husband had 3 solid helpings of this and I had 2 pretty decent helpings) and there was a pretty big serving left over for the next day.  (it still tasted good, by the way)  This recipe is easy to adapt to smaller/bigger crowds- just use different ratios for the meat and pasta and then make small adjustments accordingly!  If I would have had green onion on hand, I probably would have added some, but I didn't.  Just an idea!  Also, I know a head of garlic seems like a TON for two people, but it has a much more subtle flavor when it's roasted and it's so good for fighting colds!

Garlic bundle- ready to be tossed in the oven!

Finished product- pretty delicious!