Crispy Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo – A quick dinner, in under 30 minutes using jarred alfredo sauce, roasted red peppers, and crisped prosciutto.I need a nap! Do you? I feel like I am always running from one thing to the next. But to be honest, I love it. I love the busyness of our little life. El’s social life is bustling. I’ve been paying more attention to mine. Work is slamming busy and that just excites me.

Sometimes, dinner gets short-changed in the hustle and bustle of our routine. Sometimes it’s take out or fast food. And sometimes it’s dinner help from the grocery store.

When getting help for dinner, I look for the three no’s: no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and no high fructose corn syrup. Turn’s out Ragu Pasta Sauces all have the three no’s. I even learned that Ragu Pasta Sauces were created by a lady named Assunta Cantisano. She was an immigrant with an entrepreneurial spirit and she was a single mom. Outside the immigrant thing, she and I have some things in common.

When I was reading about Assunta’s story, I couldn’t help but think of my paternal great-grandmother. She was an Italian immigrant. Her husband died young, leaving her to raise their 5 children alone in New York. My great-grandmother passed her fortitude onto my Grandmother and that has been passed to me. Sure, I am not raising 5 kids in depression-era New York, but my life isn’t without it’s own unique challenges. One of the things I have been taught is that it is okay to ask for help. Hence, I ended up on the jarred sauce aisle of my grocery store.

I decided to try Ragu’s Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce…basically alfredo sauce amped up. I’m a huge fan of both roasted garlic and parmesan, so this had to be the one to try. I was chatting with a friend about what I might add to this dish to make it a full meal (because we all know I can’t just leave something alone) and he suggested roasted red peppers and some pan-crisped prosciutto. It sounded perfect to me, so that’s exactly what I did. And he was right on the money with those suggestions. The smokey, yet sweet flavor of the peppers and the salty crispiness of the prosciutto were a match made in heaven with Ragu’s Roasted Garlic Parmesan Sauce. I sprinkled a bit of fresh parsley in and dinner was done. Elizabeth and I almost skipped the plates and just ate it directly from the pan…Voilà, Crispy Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo!

Crispy Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo

Author: Michelle De La Cerda

Ingredients

12 oz pasta , cooked according to package directions (tortiglioni, penne, rigatoni, rotini)
3 oz package prosciutto; diced
5 oz roasted red peppers; drained and diced
1-2 tsp water
2 tsp fresh parsley; divided 1:1
1 Jar Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesan sauce

Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions and drain thoroughly.
Dice the prosciutto and add it to a hot pan, cook until crisp, about 5 minutes; remove from pan and set aside.
In the same pan, add the diced roasted red peppers.
Add the water to deglaze the pan, pulling up the browned prosciutto and pepper bits from the bottom of the pan.
Pour the Ragu Roasted Garlic and Parmesan sauce into the pan and mix it into the red peppers.
Stir in one teaspoon of parsley.
Once the pasta is cooked and drained, add it to the sauce.
Stir in the prosciutto.
Sprinkle the remaining parsley and serve.

Crispy Prosciutto and Roasted Red Pepper Alfredo ~ A quick dinner, in under 30 minutes using jarred alfredo sauce, roasted red peppers, and crisped prosciutto ~ The Complete Savorist

There is a delicious contest running over on Food.com. The contest is titled Ready. Set. Cook! and it challenges home cooks to create new and unique recipes featuring Ragu sauce plus a set list of other ingredients. They want to hear how you gather your family around the table. Share your mealtime tradition, or start a new one, by submitting your original recipe starring Ragú–The Grand Prize is $3000.