Penne with Pruscuito and Caramelized Tomatoes

This pretty much blew my mind.
After a trip to the Paesenella Deli in Haberfield with fellow food-o-phile Amelia, I came away with more interesting and exotic things than I knew what to do with - so I put a few into a pasta to see what would happen. I was lucky enough to get half a kilo of pruscuito off-cuts for a fiver, which really got my cogs turning. This is what I came up with. Be warned - it's extremely sweet and rich, so smallish servings.

You'll need;

- 100g chopped pruscuito
- 100g caramelised tomato (yum!)
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- half a sliced spanish onion
- olive oil
- 200ml cream
- 200g penne pasta

While your penne is cooking in salted, boiling water, put your pruscuito, onion and garlic in a heavy frypan and cook over medium heat for six-or-seven minutes. Deglaze the pan with a splash of water. Add the cream and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the caramelized tomatoes and stir until fragrant. Toss through the penne and serve. Be prepared for lots of surprised expressions followed by looks of delight.

Parmesan Chips

Now this is pretty durn scrumcious.

It's basically oven-baked chips, with a crunchy parmesan coating. Yes, it's at least as yummy as it sounds.

You'll need;

- 4 large potatoes (I use Lady Cristl)
- 1/2 cup of grated Pamesan cheese(use a microplane to get it fluffy)
- 30g of plain flour
- Sea Salt (Or, if you are really, really evil, Chicken Salt:-)
- Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut your potatoes into chips, put them into a saucepan of cold, salted water and bring to the boil. Boil them for about 4 minutes, then drain and let the last water evaporate.

Put the parmesan, flour and salt into a plastic bag. Add the potatoes and toss until evenly coated. Drizzle a large oven dish with the oil, and arrange the potatoes on it. Let it cook for ten minutes, turn the chips carefully, then bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until golden and crunchy. Serve with just about everything.