SAWCLicious: Tagliatelle Pasta with Ham and Tomato Basil Sauce

I've been working from home a lot in the past few months. Although this has been a benefit that we have in our company even when I was in Manila, I was never excited to work from home as I still prefer to be seated in an office environment away from any temptation (TV) and noises. Recently, I have been enjoying this benefit as I figured that I can sleep for an additional 1 hour and do a lot during lunch time. Normally, lunch would just be sandwich, salad, or left-over food from dinner so that I can still have some time to handle some chores. On one of my wfh days, I'm able to cook a quick lunch for 30 minutes and still enjoy another 30 minutes to savor my food. 

What did I prepare? It's a pan-grilled cervelat sausage (around 10 minutes cook time); arugula salad on the side drizzled with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper; and a tagliatelle pasta. I used the fresh tagliatelle pasta so that it is easier to cook.

Tagliatelle Pasta with Ham and Spicy Tomato Basil Sauce

Ingredients

• Tagliatelle Pasta (2-3 rolls for 1 serving)
• 1 can of crushed tomato
• 1/2 cup of pure tomato sauce
• 1/2 cup Sliced ham
• 1/2 onion minced
• 1 clove of garlic minced
• 3 dried red chili
• 5-6 leaves of fresh basil
• Parmesan Cheese
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. butter

If you are in a hurry, you can buy instead a ready-made tomato basil tomato sauce instead of cooking your own sauce. If using the ready-made sauce, remove tomato sauce, crushed tomato, and fresh basil from the ingredient list.

Procedure

1. In a pan, add oil, butter and ham. Let it cook for 5 minutes. Then add garlic and onion.  Cook until onion becomes transparent
2. Add crushed tomato, tomato sauce, red chili, and fresh basil. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.
3. While simmering tomato sauce, cook tagliatelle pasta 2 minutes less than the cooking instruction. Drain pasta and add to the tomato sauce. Let it simmer for another 3 minutes and it is ready to be served!