Ham Broccoli Pasta

Easter week, and the celebration this year is larger than last year's — not fully returned to pre-pandemic size but expanding, the way a lung expands after being compressed: cautiously, gratefully, with the particular pleasure of a body that remembers what it was like to breathe fully and that is, slowly, learning to breathe again.

James came home for Easter. He brought Elise. The bringing was deliberate — not the casual Thanksgiving visit of 2019 but the formal introduction of a woman James intends to keep, and the formality was visible in the way he held her chair and the way she wore the blue dress that mothers-in-law notice and that sons do not realize mothers-in-law notice. I noticed. The blue dress was lovely. The woman in it was lovelier.

Easter dinner was served to five: Naomi, Robert, James, Elise, and Mama. Joy visited in the afternoon — two hours in the garden, eating ham with her hands, wearing bunny ears that she had made from construction paper and that she refused to remove. The table held the most people it has held since Christmas 2019, and the holding was the holiday — not the resurrection theology, not the hymns, but the table holding people again, the chairs filled again, the blessing said by more than three voices.

Mama blessed the food. The blessing was fragments this time — "For this... food... and..." — and I waited, and the waiting was the space between the words, the space the disease has created, and in the space I heard the words she could not say, and the hearing was enough, and the enough was the Easter.

I made the full Easter dinner: ham with brown sugar glaze, deviled eggs, collard greens, mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole, cornbread, peach cobbler. The meal was the same. The meal will always be the same. And the sameness is the liturgy, and the liturgy is the family, and the family is five people and a woman in bunny ears and a blessing made of fragments that, assembled, say everything.

The ham was the center of it all — the brown sugar glaze, the carved slices passed down the table, Joy eating it with her hands in the garden with those paper bunny ears still on. After a holiday like that, when the table has finally held people again and the blessing has finally been said by more than three voices, I want a recipe that carries the spirit of the ham into the days that follow — something warm, simple, and worth sitting down for. This Ham Broccoli Pasta is exactly that: a way to keep the Easter meal going just a little longer, in the quiet after everyone has gone home.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

12 oz penne or rotini pasta
2 cups cooked ham, diced or cubed
3 cups broccoli florets
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Salt to taste

Instructions

Cook the pasta. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions until al dente. Add the broccoli florets during the last 3 minutes of cooking. Drain and set aside.
Make the sauce base. In a large skillet or saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and cook, stirring, for about 1 minute until fragrant. Whisk in the flour and cook for another minute to form a roux.
Build the cream sauce. Gradually whisk in the milk and chicken broth, a little at a time, until smooth. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring frequently, for 4—5 minutes until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Add the cheese. Remove from heat and stir in the cheddar and Parmesan until fully melted and smooth. Season with onion powder, pepper, and salt to taste.
Combine everything. Add the drained pasta and broccoli to the sauce along with the diced ham. Toss gently over low heat for 2—3 minutes until everything is well coated and heated through.
Serve. Spoon into bowls and serve immediately, with extra Parmesan on the side if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Ham Broccoli Pasta — The Meal That Holds Us Together