Ham picnic pasta
This quick ham picnic pasta is equally delicious warm or cold. Try it in lunchboxes or for casual dinners, as well as picnics of course.
Ingredients
- 250g/9oz dried pasta shape of your choice
- 6 tbsp mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- 1 tsp English mustard
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes (or 2 tsp Cayenne pepper)
- 100g/3½oz cooked gammon or ham
- 1 pepper (any colour), deseeded and sliced into short strips
- 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
Method
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions in boiling salted water. When cooked, drain thoroughly and set aside. (If using in packed lunches rinse the pasta in a sieve under cold running water until cold.)
In a large bowl, mix the mayonnaise, honey, mustard and dried chilli flakes together. Add the cooked pasta, ham, pepper and spring onions and toss well together. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve. (If taking for a packed lunch, put into a lidded container and keep cool.)
Recipe Tips
You can make this recipe cheaper by cooking a 1kg/2lb 4oz gammon joint and using it in multiple meals. Batch cooking in this way saves money while still ensuring there's plenty of variety in your meals. The other recipes are a pea and ham soup, a ham hash and a ham and vegetable bake.
To cook the gammon, put a 1kg/2lb 4oz gammon joint in a large saucepan and bring to the boil in 2 litres/3½ pints water. Simmer for an hour. Remove the gammon and set aside to cool. Keep the cooking water to use as stock.
In September 2023 this recipe was costed at an average of £4.83 when checking prices at four UK supermarkets (using sliced ham). This recipe is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard, for more details click here to see how our budget recipes were costed.