How (Not) To Cook For One - Prosciutto, Cremini, and Pea Tortellini

I've been making an effort lately to make small batches of amazing food when I have a craving...  Not filling up the freezer and/or forcing myself to eat the same meal (no matter how delicious) 8 times in a row... I think of it as "cooking for one," but I'm really bad at it...  Here's how it happens.

I was over in the neighborhood of Providore Foods the other day, meandering about looking for something that called to my palate...  After a couple loops around the store, I ended up back at the handmade pasta case and saw a package of Prosciutto Tortellini.  Yum.  I have this food memory from when I was in college, where I would make pasta with prosciutto, peas, creminis, and cream as an affordable, soul-restoring comfort food.  Thus, when I saw prosciutto as an ingredient, my brain immediately went back to the English shelling peas and creminis that I'd seen over in the produce area...  I left Providore with a small stash, ready to make a nicer version of my college pasta (no frozen peas here)...

Back home, I grabbed some pantry and freezer items (shallots, Parmesan, rotisserie chicken thigh meat, prosciutto, shallots, butter, and wine...) and was good to go.

Now, I suspect the average person could already tell that there is going to be more than one or two portions of food when all is said and done... I hadn't hit that realization yet...  On to getting veggies prepped...

I cooked down the shallots and mushrooms in some butter until most of the excess liquid was released and things got all pretty and brown...

Deglazed with some white wine and reduced until almost dry again...

Then added a little cream to start bringing a "sauce" together...

Meanwhile, it was time to get the peas and pasta cooking.  I cooked off the shelled peas in some butter while the pasta cooked, then added the pasta to the skillet just to see if I could get a bit of browned-butter-action on the tortellini...

The pasta and peas got dumped into the pan with the sauce at this point...

Followed by the chicken, prosciutto, and Parmesan... And, there you have it.  Dinner for One.

It's a good thing the leftovers were delicious...  Turns out cooking reasonable amounts of food is challenging for a kid like me when my recipe is "throw delicious things in a pan together."  Working on it...  =)