Prosciutto, Pea and Goat Cheese Pasta

What do you get when you combine one freezer meal and one comeback kitchen finalist? This dish, duh. Because what else would the result be? Haha. You know, when I first envisioned myself cooking for Tyler and Valerie, making a first impression... I wasn't picturing reheating something I would never really purchase in the first place. Don't get my wrong. I am constantly pulling things from my freezer. But they are frozen left overs or elements/ingredients that I have previously hand crafted. As I mentioned in my presentation on Comeback Kitchen, "There ain't no shame in my freezer game."

(Okay, can we please have a vain tangent here? Can we talk about the fact that I don't ever look like I have eyebrows on TV? Yall, I have eye brows. I promise. I didn't even seek out "good brow pics" because I know I have them. I just went for a random selection of the non hideous variety photos. And in randomly selecting non hideous pictures of me, you can see that I have brow game AND freezer game.

Okay, back to food or some crap like that. Just kidding. I love food. Clearly. This ass doesn't grow its self. Although, sometimes I wonder if it does. Because even when I under feed and over water it, grow it does and does.

Anyway... Pastas and soups are a great catch all for the random things you find in your house. (Maybe I should be more specific. The FOOD you find in your KITCHEN. I mean, we have kids eating Tide Pods these days and people are petitioning to make them look less alluring. Although it has been proposed before, America doesn't quite seem to catch on... maybe raise teenagers who don't want to eat Tide Pods. I put some in my washing machine today, then I accidentally put my finger in my mouth when eating some coconut flakes... I had to wash that flavor out for a hot minute. Why would one do that on purpose?)

For the second time Amy, we are returning to pasta. Specifically this pasta. The one I made for Tyler and Valerie on Comeback Kitchen. I don't know if anyone told you, but pastas and soups are a great catch all for "random" ingredients. Haha. As the challenge began, I was initially trying to come up with fresh flavors to compliment this freezer meal before pasta even dawned on me. So when pasta popped into my head, I knew I had a game plan.

Sweet peas, peppery arugula, creamy and tart goat cheese, salty bacon, acidic lemon juice and mushrooms apparently. When I recreated this recipe, I totally forgot that I had put mushrooms in it. But don't worry about it. I am all still there mentally. Or am I?

So I tried to shoot a Messy Life, Messy Kitchen video for this. And let me just say that I am so wildly NOT tech savvy. So I had my old cell phone filming, a ew camera filming and I couldn't hook up my mike because I had ordered a wireless microphone that was supposed to connect to a SPEAKER, not a recording device. So my attempt to up my game made me more amateur than ever. I am going to haphazardly "edit" (aka Frankenstein it together) for you since I promised more Messy Life Messy Kitchen videos. But lets just say I am soliciting pro-bono camera skills from pretty much anybody at this point. My child might be better at this than I am.

Before you watch the following video... most likely my worst yet... I am just trying to get it out there. I have never claimed to be an awesome professional so much as I am an amateur everything. So since time and energy went into this, you are getting my jacked up products too. You're welcome. And I say you're welcome because watching this video will probably make you feel better about your self. Again, you're welcome. But hey, you also get a recipe out of it. So its not all a loss.

Its funny, because part of me doesn't want to publish it because if I am to project where I want to be professionally, this video is a mess. But sometimes life happens, and mine is chaotic right now. My husband was gone at just got back, I have been crazy busy with catering, my kids lives, my life, military life and I have been being pulled in a million different directions. But that IS the reality of life. And since I don't have a production team (or anyone else at all) here doing this for me, this is what my life is like. So enjoy this Messy Life, Messy Kitchen, Messy Video. Haha. :)

Ingredients/Instructions:

8-10 oz dry pasta

2 oz panchetta

1" x 3" strip slab bacon

5-6 clvoes garlic, minced

1/2 shallot, minced

3-4 tbsp EVOO, divided

4 lemons, juiced

4 oz goat cheese

2 cups peas

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

2-3 handfuls arugula

1-2 oz fresh basil

1/2 tsp (or more to taste) crushed red pepper flakes

1. Heat up a large pan or a wok style pan.

2. Add diced slab bacon and pancetta to the pan and stir until browning and rendering fat (5-8) minutes).

3. Add small minced garlic and shallots. Stir until browning and translucent (-4-6 minutes).

4. Add 1 tsp olive oil, peas, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes and stir.

5. In a separate pot, cook your noodles, al dente. Drain, reserving 1/3 cup of the pasta water.

6. Juice lemons into the pan containing the peas and the pancetta.

7. Add al dente noodles (with reserved water) to the pan with other the other ingredients.

8. Add the remaining olive oil, the arugula and the goat cheese.

9. Toss until well mixed. Add any additional salt or spice that you would like.

Enjoy!

Again, have a good laugh at my video.