Ham and Peas Pasta with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
The perfect way to use up all your leftover ham! It is amazingly creamy, comforting and kid-friendly!
Is it just me or are the leftovers really the best part about the holidays?
For me, it’s the ham leftovers. You serve it with your scrambled eggs for breakfast, or you make midday sandwiches to get you through that work crunch.
And now, with ALDI’s Appleton Farms Spiral Sliced Hickory Smoked Honey Ham, you can have even more.
This ham is budget-friendly, serves an army of at least 7-10, and is incredibly easy to serve.
And IF you happen to have any leftovers, you can have it in pasta-form, involving my favorite garlic parmesan cream sauce with the award-winning Priano Parmesan cheese.
So it’s basically the gold of all cream sauces.
It really is.
I also added some green peas. Because we need a little color in our dish.
Not only that, it takes just minutes to whip up with your leftover ham!
Ham and Peas Pasta with Garlic Parmesan Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 8 ounces SimplyNature Organic Spaghetti
- ¼ cup Countryside Creamery unsalted butter
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons Baker’s Corner all-purpose flour
- 1 cup Chef’s Cupboard chicken broth, or more, as needed
- 1 teaspoon Stonemill dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon Stonemill dried basil
- ½ cup Countryside Creamery half and half
- ½ cup freshly grated Priano Parmesan
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cups chopped Appleton Farms Spiral Sliced Hickory Smoked Honey Ham
- 1 cup Season’s Choice Frozen Sweet Peas
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta according to package instructions; drain well.
- To make the garlic parmesan cream sauce, melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk in chicken broth, thyme and basil. Cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes.
- Stir in half and half and Parmesan until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. If the mixture is too thick, add more half and half as needed; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in spaghetti, ham and peas, and gently toss to combine.
- Serve immediately, garnished with parsley, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by ALDI. As always, I only partner with brands that I love and truly believe in, allowing me to create more quick and easy recipes to get us through the week without breaking the bank. All opinions expressed are my own.
Doubled the recipe to accommodate 1-lb of pasta and only substituted heavy cream fir the half ‘n half as it was all I had on hand.
Quick, Easy and Delicious. A keeper for sure!
Loved it. I cut left over ham and left over roasted chicken in julienne strips to add 2 this receipe. That is it. Follow your receipe….OMG!!! DELICIOUS!!! Thank you
Wow! I was looking for a recipe using pasta, ham and parm and I hit the jackpot. Made as is except I only used 1/2 t of thyme and basil. Will definitely make again as I always have cubed ham in my freezer. Thanks for such a delicious and easy recipe for weekday suppers. I have enough to freeze and have another night.
This was delicious but you weren’t kidding when you said it would feed an army. I used tortellini instead of spaghetti. Do you think I could freeze the leftovers?
Tasty. My wife usually makes a similar dish but different recipe. So, I was a little nervous the kids wouldn’t like it. Made some modifications based on what we had in the house. Used a combo of prosciutto & bacon instead of ham and a different kind of pasta. It was a hit. Think the roux made the difference.
Do you add the peas frozen in step four?
I made this with left overs from Christmas. My husband has celiac disease so I made some modifications and it turned out fantastic! I used gluten free spaghetti and Pamela’s AP flour for the roux. Finally, I used whole milk instead of half and half, mainly because I purchase it for one recipe and then waste the rest. I’m sure it wasn’t as creamy as the original recipe, but it wasn’t missed. I will definitely make this dish again. I might try broccoli next time in place of peas.
Made this last night with our leftover ham and everyone loved it! My mom asked me to forward her the recipe Definitely a keeper!
This was so easy and good!!! Left out the seasonings since we don’t like either one. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Great way to use up leftover ham!!
Yum! I needed a quick dinner using what I could find in my kitchen and this was a great use for my leftover Easter ham. I added some mushrooms since they were in the fridge. I also replaced the basil with dill and added the zest of one lemon. I had some really good feta I wanted to top it with and thought the flavors would mesh better. So good! The 2.5 year old devoured it also.
Thanks for sharing your version with us, Rose! Sounds delicious!
Am I the only one that thought this recipe was exceptionally over spiced? I didn’t put in as much thyme or basil as the recipe called for and I still had to take half of the finished pasta and rinse off all the sauce to try and salvage it- and even then it still tasted way over spiced. I thought it was an easy and delicious recipe (minus all the basil and thyme) though, and a great way to use up our leftover Easter ham. I’ll definitely be making this again with a few changes!
very delicious dinner; used up our Easter ham! we enjoyed it very much and didn’t change a thing!
It’s delicious and so easy!! I definitely recommend it to university/college students, it’s a great chance to get familiar with cooking.. I was also surprised with how fast it’s done!
That’s so great, Nikol! Thanks for sharing!
I made it almost exactly as in the recipe, except that I used whole milk instead of heavy cream, because that was the only one I had. It was a hit! My boys, who are 4 and 1.5 year olds loved it. Even my husband, who doesn’t like pasta dishes in general, went for seconds and thirds! So, thank you so much for this recipe. This one’s a keeper in our house now.
Thank you for sharing!
This is absolutely delicious! Had some leftover ham and used that and milk instead of half and half (doubled to add a bit more creaminess).
That sounds yummy!
Wow, so many popups and video on your recipe pages. It takes away from your beautiful images and yummy recipes. What happened?
This is how we can assure that all recipes are available for free for our amazing readers/followers.
I really love white sauce compared to red sauce because the latter is too acidic for me. My tummy can’t tolerate too much of it. Anyway, I tried this recipe and it tasted so good! Thanks for sharing.
Great!
This is JUST what I’ve been craving. I used to love the pea and ham pasta salad at Applebee’s garden bar but all our Applebee’s closed down (boo!). This is delish! I used heavy whipping cream because I hate worrying about my half and half breaking, so I just reduced the amount of flour I used. I also added 1/2 an onion because I had it sitting in the fridge and didn’t want it to go to waste. Thanks for the recipe!
Great, Valerie! Thanks for sharing with us!
Giving this a shot tonight, although I might try diced pancetta instead of ham.
Can you recommend a different veggie to use instead of peas? My daughter isn’t a big fan of them. Thanks!
You can substitute broccoli but please be mindful of cooking time.
I bet it would be good with zucchini as well (again, they will cook faster than brocolli).
Do you cook the peas before adding them to the rest of the ingredients?
No, there’s no need to. It will cook through with the rest of the ingredients.