Spaghet­ti With Cream, Porci­ni and Jam­bon Iberico

(serves four)

25 grams dried porci­ni mushrooms
3/4 lb spaghetti
1 tbsp unsalt­ed (impor­tant) butter
4 cloves gar­lic, minced
1 cup sin­gle cream
2 egg yolks
10 slices jam­bon iberico
fresh ground black pep­per to taste
a few grat­ings lemon zest
grat­ed pecori­no or parme­san to garnish

This dish is rough­ly inspired by a sim­i­lar­ly creamy and deca­dent one in the bril­liant Giu­liano Haz­an’s Clas­sic Pas­ta, where he com­bines pro­sciut­to and aspara­gus. I love Haz­an’s book part­ly for its no-non­sense advice and obvi­ous chan­nel­ing of his moth­er’s genius, but also for the pre­sen­ta­tion which has a Dor­ling-Kinder­s­ley appeal: ingre­di­ents lined up with Mon­dri­an precision.

Now, two things about ingre­di­ents. I spec­i­fy jam­bon iberi­co only because I bought some yes­ter­day. You may eas­i­ly use par­ma ham or pro­sciut­to. Sec­ond, you must set the mush­rooms aside in boil­ing water to cov­er them, for at least 20 min­utes to rehy­drate them. Remem­ber this at the out­set, because that will take longer than the sauce prep or the boil­ing water for your pasta.

So, set the mush­rooms aside. Poke at them now and then to make sure they are all absorb­ing the water. SAVE that water when you’ve fished out the mush­rooms because it is wild­ly fra­grant and rich. I’m plan­ning to use mine as a stock in tonight’s sauce for chick­en. Sep­a­rate the slices of jam­bon and cut them into strips.

Put your pas­ta water on to boil about 15 min­utes before you want to eat and start the sauce by melt­ing the but­ter in a large saucepan and sweat­ing the gar­lic till it’s soft. Add the cream and whisk in the egg yolks, then grind in plen­ty of black pep­per. Do not add salt as both the ham and the pecori­no or parme­san are very salty. Take off the heat. Cook your pas­ta and save out a lit­tle of the water to thin your sauce if necessary.

As the pas­ta drains, put the sauce back on the heat, throw­ing in the jam­bon and the mush­rooms which you’ve plucked out of the water, and the lemon zest. Whisk until it’s bub­bling soft­ly. Toss in the spaghet­ti and mix with tongs, adding some of the pas­ta water if nec­es­sary. Top with grat­ed cheese and serve imme­di­ate­ly, if not sooner.