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Penne Pasta With Celery Root Sauce

Your cookbook inventory is not complete without a volume or two from best-selling cookbook author and food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins. The only thing better? A collection of pasta recipes cowritten with her daughter, Sara Jenkins, chef at NYC's East Village trattoria Porsena. Pick up your pasta pot and ready the extra-virgin olive oil: You know exactly what's for dinner tonight.  

This is a new recipe. I have used celery root, which I like very much, reduced to a pulp to form the basis of the sauce. The addition of ham in small strips (or smoked ham) lifts the sauce and makes it very appetizing, though for a vegetarian version this can simply be omitted.

Reprinted with permission from The Four Seasons of Pasta

Penne Pasta With Celery Root Sauce
No Ratings
Prep Time
30
minutes
Cook Time
30
minutes
Servings
4
pasta
Total time: 1 hour
Ingredients
  • 10 1/2 ounces dried large penne, pennoni, with ridges (rigate)
  • 3/4 cup parmesan
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 1 onion
  • 3 1/2 ounces cooked ham
  • 1 1/3 pound celery root
  • About 3 1/2 tablespoons milk
  • You could use macaroni, sedani, elbows or rigatoni.
Directions
  1. Melt the butter in a large saucepan and fry the onion for 5 minutes. Add the ham, and warm through. Set aside.
  2. In a separate pan, cook the celery root cubes in boiling salted water until very soft, about 10 minutes. Drain and add to the pan with the buttery onion. Squash it down a bit. Add the milk to make it more liquid, and warm through gently.
  3. Cook the pennoni in plenty of boiling salted water for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente. Drain and mix with the sauce in the pan. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and parsley, and lots of black pepper.