Let's make creamy cheesy ham tetrazini
using leftover holiday ham. This is a
ham casserole with pasta, peas, a creamy
sauce, and of course, it's got to have
the cheese in it. Now, we are going to
be using the leftover ham, probably
about two cups or so of that. And then
we are going to be using some thin
spaghetti. Now, I'm using the whole
grain cuz that's what I have, but I can
never tell the difference between the
whole grain and the regular. So,
whichever one you want to use. And if
you want to use linguini or if you want
to use a fetuccini or even regular
pasta, we're going to season with salt
and pepper. Here's the cheese. Sharp
cheddar cheese. And then we are going to
put in some flour and butter as a r just
kind of thicken things up.
Okay, I've got some oil.
That's going to be used for the onion
and the garlic.
Got some milk. Add some creaminess to
it. I'm actually using some heavy
whipping cream or you could use half and
half. Got our peas. Now, I'm using
frozen peas. And got chicken broth. Get
that sauce going. First thing we're
going to do is get a large pot of water
to a boil. If you put a lid on it,
brings it to a boil faster.
And I'm going to be using 16 oz or one
pound of the pasta.
Now to season our water, I'm going to be
adding in about half a tablespoon of
salt. We want to flavor every layer as
we go.
Now, I'm going to be breaking up my
spaghetti in half.
Don't come at me, you guys.
Just makes it easier in the casserole.
And I'm just going to layer it in.
I like using the spaghetti for any kind
of tetrazini dish. I've done it with
chicken. You can also do it with turkey.
So, if you have leftovers from the
holidays, just make sure that it is
fully cooked, the turkey or the chicken,
if you're going to do that.
Now I'm going to stir up the pasta for
about 30 seconds or so. That'll help it
from sticking.
Now we are going to cook this until it
is al dente. And per the directions on
the package, it's going to take about 6
to 7 minutes. And then once the pasta is
done, we will drain it and set it aside.
We're going to be using a large deep
skillet to make the creamy sauce. And
I'm using a deep skillet because I want
to combine everything into it at the
end. Now, we're going to place it on a
medium high heat.
Now, what I'm going to do is add in four
tablespoon of butter and get that nice
and melted.
And then I'm going to add in one
tablespoon of cooking oil. Now I'm just
using a good olive oil for this.
Now, while the butter is melting, we're
going to go ahead and get our onion
ready. And I'm just using a mediumsiz
yellow onion. And I just taken off the
two sides. And we're going to peel off
that outer layer.
We're going to remove all this. And then
we're going to chop our onion in half.
And what I like to do just for an easy
cut on these onions is just slice them.
And then what we'll do is we'll turn
them around. And then we'll run a knife
through the slices just to make dices.
Now, I can get my chopper out and do
this, but for one small onion, I'll just
do it this way right here. It'll add a
nice texture to the dish and some
flavor.
But if you want to leave it out, you can
also do that and just add some onion
powder.
Now, once we get it all chopped up, we
are going to add our onion to the melted
butter and the oil and start softening
down the onion. And then, while that's
happening, we'll work on our garlic. But
since I have a jar of garlic left over
from the holidays, I'm just going to add
in teaspoons of that to the pan when
it's time. But now is a good time to
start hacking up your garlic if you want
to do that. There's my clove right there
that I'm not going to be using for this
recipe.
All right, so we're going to add in
about two to three teaspoon of minced
garlic. It's all about flavor in this
dish.
We're going to stir that around and
we're going to cook that for about 1
minute. That's to release the flavors of
the garlic into the onion, which has
already been softened down. Now, I'm
going to go ahead and season this with a
little bit of salt and pepper. Remember,
we are seasoning as we go.
It's just about a pinch of each. We're
just going to stir that in. and get
those flavors going.
Smells so good.
Now I'm going to sprinkle in about a/4
cup of allpurpose flour.
We're going to start making that nice
thickener. This is kind of a r and we're
going to keep it a very light color. I'm
not going to go dark with the rue.
So just right across the top of it.
And I'm going to use my silicone whisk
for this so I don't scratch up my pan.
We're going to blend that flour into the
butter. Now, you want to cook this for
about one to two minutes. And that will
help cook the rawness out of the flour.
Want it nice and golden. Now I'm going
to add in half a cup of chicken broth.
Get the sauce going here.
Get it all mixed together. Now, I am
going to use some pasta water. Now, if
you've already drained your pasta, then
you could just use regular water. And
I'm going to use half a cup right now.
That's just to get the sauce going
and get everything incorporated.
Now I'm going to go back in with another
cup or so of the chicken broth. We'll
thin it out later if we need to with the
sauce.
We'll just whisk that in. Just trying to
bring this to a boil. We want to allow
that sauce to thicken, but we want to
add that flavor to it. Grab you a spoon.
Give this a taste and see if you need to
add any additional salt or black pepper.
Just remember, we've got other things
going in that's going to be salty, so we
don't want to add too much extra salt.
Now, I've got my 8 oz of sharp cheddar
cheese that I'm going to grate.
Now, if you have a bag of it, that's
fine. You just need 8 ounces. And we're
going to divide that. Half of it is
going to go in the sauce right here.
We're going to whisk that in until it's
almost melted.
Now, you're going to save your other
half for the end of the recipe. Look how
creamy that looks. Oh, it's delicious,
you guys. You've already tasted it.
We're going to taste it again, though.
Yep, that's perfect.
All right, we're going to turn off the
heat. I'm going to add in one cup of the
frozen peas. We'll get those mixed in.
Start heating those through.
Yeah, add some color to the dish. If you
don't like the peas, you can leave them
out. Now, here's my holiday ham that I
had left over. I had more than that, but
we're going to use this right here. You
want about two cups. And Whoops. There
we go. I'm going to dice it up.
And
yeah, like I said, if you have leftover
Thanksgiving turkey for this, you can do
that if you want. You can even do cooked
chicken. You just want to make sure that
whatever protein you're using is cooked
through.
I thought it would be a good idea to use
this for the ham.
Now, I'm just chopping it up.
And of course, we're going to add that
in.
All right, add as much as you want.
That's what I'm going to be adding right
there. Let's get that stirred in. I'm
trying to get all the layers stirred in
separately. I'm going to add in some
more chicken broth. I want to keep that
sauce kind of thin. That way, it coats
everything well.
And it's going to add that flavor to it,
too.
All right. Look at that, you guys. That
looks so delicious. Nice and creamy and
cheesy, which is what I promised y'all
for this tetrazini.
All right, give that a try. Yeah, love
that saltiness. All right, let's add our
cooked and drained pasta or spaghetti,
whatever you're using. Now, you're going
to take some tongs and you're just going
to carefully move everything around. Go
to the bottom and pull up. And you want
all that spaghetti nice and coated with
that sauce.
Oh, look at that. We're not done yet,
though.
Yeah. You just want to take that out of
that pan right now and eat it.
Most people would.
That looks good.
All right, I think we got it. Now I'm
going to be taking a 9 by13 baking pan
and I'm going to spray it with some
cooking spray so that our casserole
doesn't stick in there. Then just take
it all and pour it in. Oh, look at that.
Yep. I got a good shot for you, didn't
I?
Now what we're going to do is evenly
spread it throughout the pan.
That way it cooks nice and even. Really,
we're just heating it through. So
everything is already cooked.
Look at those colors.
I'm excited for it. Leftover ham
recipes.
I got some extra ones on my site,
catherine'splates.com. Go check it out.
All right, here goes the other 4 oz of
our shredded cheddar cheese that I'm
just going to put right on top. And if
you want more, ah, it's your casserole.
It's your tetrazini. Put as much on
there as you want.
That's going to melt good. All right.
We're going to preheat our oven to 350°.
Just a standard setting. And once it's
preheated, we're going to place this in
the oven. And we're going to bake it for
about 20 to 25 minutes until that cheese
is nice and melted and everything is
heated through. kind of want it nice and
little bubbly on the top there. And then
we're going to be back.
Here it is, you guys. My creamy cheesy
ham tetrazini leftover ham casserole.
Oh, we're going to dive right in with
this. We got to have a big spoon for
this one. There it is. Let's dive in.
I'm not even waiting for this one to
cool down or anything. Y'all just go
right in.
No one's waiting for this one. Look at
that color of it. It is beautiful. And
like my book says, simply delicious.
Now, this one is not in my book yet. I'm
going to have a new cookbook coming out
and it'll be in there. You guys, look at
that. You can serve that up with a side
salad.
Oh, here's my first bite. Let's go in.
Oh my goodness. It was creamy and
cheesy. I love all the flavors in there.
All the textures just coming together
with this one. Yeah. Don't forget the
peas, you guys. If you want more in
there of anything, just put it in there.
That's what it's good about a casserole.
All right, you guys. If you're excited
about my creamy cheesy ham ketchiniti,
let me know with a big thumbs up. And if
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one here are posted.
Happy holidays to everyone. Merry
Christmas and I'll see y'all on the next
episode. Bye. Yeah.