Braised pork with tomato gravy and pasta

Last night I threw together an amazing meal! I didn't have a recipe to go by, didn't even know what route I was going to go. But it was good!

Start with 1 large-ish pork loin (2-3 pounds). Slice into 1 inch slices. Season with salt, pepper and Pizza seasoning, from Penzeys. I wasn't sure if it would work, but the spices in the seasoning blend worked great. In a large, deep pan, over medium high heat, with olive oil, sear the pork slices on both sides. Remove to a plate and work in batches; don't overcrowd the pan.

When the pork is seared, toss in 1 medium onion, diced. Toss around until the onions start to soften and pick up some color from the pan. Add about 1 TB each of dried basil and oregano. A large-ish pinch of red pepper flake. Stir to cook for a short 30 seconds. Deglaze the pan with 3/4 cup of red wine. A dry red is preferred. Scrape up all the bits from the bottom of the pan.

When the wine has reduced down by at least half, add 1 cup of chicken broth, 1 14 oz can of diced tomato and 1 8oz can of tomato sauce. Stir and bring to a simmer. I didn't have any fresh garlic, so at this point, I did a liberal sprinkle of garlic powder.

Return the pork slices to the pan and submerge in the sauce. Cover and place in a 300 degree oven for an hour. After an hour, remove the cover. Start a pot of water boiling for pasta. Once the pasta is added to the pot of water, remove the pork/sauce pot from the oven. Take the slices of pork out of the sauce and roughly chop the tender meat into bite size pieces. Return to the sauce. Optional, add a splash of cream to smooth out the sauce, mellow the flavors (I used a lot of black pepper) and add a richness.

When the pasta is done, drain and toss with the sauce. Reserve some cooking water, in case your sauce has reduced too much to dress the pasta. Serve hot and delicious!

For reasonable servings, you'd get at least 6 servings. I think we got five. I had enough sauce and meat to serve with 3/4 of a box of spiral pasta. 3 hefty servings for three hungry peeps, plus 2 good sized lunch portions. Not bad for a mostly pantry meal. I had the pork loin from the weekend shopping trip and everything else was in the cupboard or fridge!

20 day break? Sorry!

There comes a point in your blogging career when blogging becomes work. Not work as in this is is so painful and I don't want to do it. But work as in I'm exhausted from a long day and all I want to do is take a nap. I've been pooped out! My only really hobby right now is going home and vegging. So I have been. I'll continue to blog when I can and hopefully the time will come when I'm not so tired and get back into blogging on a regular basis.

In the meantime, I have a few things to share...

Channa Masala! This is an incredible budget meal. Chickpeas simmered in a spicy (you decide how spicy), curry sauce and then served over rice. Very tasty. I made a big batch so we'd have some food for lunches.

Penne with tomato vodka cream sauce. How do I love you, let me count the ways: 1) Penne. 2) Vodka!! 3) Cream! 4)Tomato. And 5) Sauce! Love. Simple, rich. Super rich. Very tasty!

Chicken quesadilla with corn, shallots, jalapeno and lime. Season a chicken breast with salt & pepper. Saute until cooked through. Dice. Saute some shallots and jalapeno in the same pan. Add the corn and diced chicken. Squeeze some lime. Stir. Good. Good as is. Better when smushed with cheese between a large tortilla!

Pides! A Turkish style pizza with chicken, cheese, tomatoes in a delicious crust. Filling! At the Mediterranean restaurant, Cafe 8 on 8th Street SE, Washington, DC. It's the only thing I've had there, in the 4-5 times I've been. Check them out.

Returning from vacation

We returned from part one of our vacation yesterday. After an extended weekend of restaurant good and take-out, I had to make dinner. I got a pot of water boiling for some pasta and made a quick sauce with 1/2 pound of Italian sausage, 1/2 small onion, diced finely, 1 clove of garlic, minced and a teaspoon of Italian season. Add 1/4 cup of dry white wine and one can of petite diced tomatoes and at the last minute 1/2 cup of chiffonade of basil. Toss with the al dente pasta, serve hot. Mmmmm!

Part two of vacation begins tomorrow. YEAH!

Cajun Chicken Pasta

For dinner the other night, I revisited a recipe I tried a few months ago and loved. Rich, decadent, highly seasoned, filling and totally satisfying. Cajun Chicken Pasta. Still meets all of those criteria. But I noticed one thing different this time. My "Cajun" seasoning was different and it gave a completely different taste. Previously, I used Penzey's Cajun Seasoning and this time I used a McCormick's Gourmet Collection Cajun blend. Both were fine, but now that I can compare, I'm certainly going with Penzey's. I'm not really surprised, I've had an ongoing love affair with Penzey's for many years. Afterall, I work not to support myself, but to support my spice habit. But in a pinch, I figured one can't be all that different from another. I felt there was a big different. This is based soley on my impression and not studying or research, etc, but I felt the McCormick's blend was very heavy on black pepper. All good! Love black pepper, but there wasn't a balance of other flavors in the blend. The black pepper stepped into the party and said "Hey, I'm black pepper, I'm dominant and I'm going to force you beneath me." Whereas the Penzey's blend just had the feeling of a bunch of friends hanging at a party, having a good time, everyone's working the room and no one is playing alpha dog. Again, I don't have a thing against black pepper, I love it and use lots of it, but with McCormicks, I think it was a touch heavy handed.

Anyway. Long story short. This is a fun, fast meal that I would recommend to anyone who wants a little zippy dinner. Now, if you're on a diet bandwagon, I wouldn't have any problems removing the butter from the recipe, or the cream. If I took the cream out, I might add in a tablespoon of tomato paste to add a little something more to the brothy sauce.

Summer Dinner

Such a pretty dinner. Chicken Provencale. I've been making this for years and for some reason, Friday night's dinner just hit the spot! Saute the chicken breast until golden brown and delicious. Saute some onions, peppers, garlic, tomatoes. Simmer in some wine. Toss in some basil. Serve with skinny spaghetti.

Meatballs and Ziti

Last night's dinner was meatballs and spaghetti...except I didn't have enough spaghetti...so it was meatballs and ziti. The meatballs were great. The sauce was alright. Combined, all good. Let's get started. I roughly followed this recipe.


Ew, gross. Raw meat. Sorry veggie friends. But to make meatballs, you need some meat. I used a pound of "meatloaf" mix from the store...ground beef, veal and pork. This provides the best flavor, over straight beef or pork. I'm not fond of veal, so let's pretend it's not there. To the ground meat, I added one egg, a small handful of chopped parsley, a piece of sandwich bread that had been soaked in milk and one small/medium onion, finely diced and sauted in olive oil until caramelized, with basil and oregano (dried). Not pictured, is 1/4-1/2 cup of grated parm. Squige this all together until very well combined. Scoop the mixture out and shape into hearty ping pong sized balls. One thing I tried last night and may not be necessary...I then dredged the uncooked meatballs in seasoned flour, I was hoping for an extra crusty meatball. I don't think it made a difference, except in the mess that had to be cleaned up afterwards.

Saute the meatballs in olive oil until dark and crispy on the outside. Don't worry if the don't cook through. They will simmer in sauce later. So, pull the meatballs to a pull and start a sauce. You can make any red sauce you like. For this meal, I did one 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes, one 14 oz can of diced tomatoes, salt, pepper, and some more dried herbs. Oh, and a few smashed cloves of garlic. Add the meatballs back to the pan and simmer over low heat for an hour or so.

Toss cooked pasta with the sauce and plate up with a few meatballs per person. This batch made 22-24 meatballs. If you want, you can freeze the leftover meatballs and sauce for a later meal. We just packaged the leftovers up for lunch.

With dinner last night, we had a glass of the Biltmore Estate's Pinot Noir. Very tasty! We must have liked it at the tasting we attended in Asheville, NC in December, since we bought two bottles. We forgot how much we enjoyed it. A great spicy, jammy flavor with a light body. It paired nicely with meatballs and sauce.

Pesto!

A yummy, quick dinner! Fresh pesto. Store bough tortellini, sauted peppers and some chicken. Toss to coat and enjoy. The interesting thing. I totally forgot about pine nuts for the pesto. So I used slivered almonds. Worked great! And cheaper!!!

Satisfying Pasta

Let's just jump into last night's dinner shall we.

Cajun Chicken Pasta
One pound of chicken, diced up, seasoned with cajun seasoning, salt & pepper and cooked through. Remove to a plate.

In the same pan, cook some chopped red onion, red pepper, green pepper and garlic until almost tender. You want a little bite left in the peppers. Remove to the plate with the chicken.

In the same pan, deglaze with broth & wine if you want, simmer, add some cream, simmer to reduce. Season with salt/pepper, cayenne pepper if you want some extra heat and a touch more cajun seasoning.

Schlep all the ingredients in the cream sauce with pasta that is just about al dente. Simmer for an extra minute or two to finish cooking the pasta and letting the sauce mingle and marry with the other ingredients.

Toss with fresh parsley and serve up.

This dinner came from The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Great blog. My kind of food! Really a satisfying dinner. All the slurpiness of a chain restaurant's type of pasta dinner, but with the supreme wholesomeness of a home cooked meal. It was fast, easy and adaptable! I skipped the wine, unlike me, but I had my reasons. I used penne, use pasta you prefer. I used canned tomatoes instead of fresh--canned are better than the out of season white tomatoes my store has now. And I added a little shot of Worchestshire sauce just prior to adding the pasta. All in all, very tasty! This will come out again!

Cajun Chicken Pasta
3 whole Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts, Cut Into Cubes
3 tsp Cajun Spice Mix, More To Taste
1 pound pasta
2 TB Olive Oil
2 TB Butter
1 whole Green Bell Pepper, Seeded And Sliced
1 whole Red Bell Pepper, Seeded And Sliced
½ whole Large Red Onion, Sliced
3 cloves Garlic, Minced
4 whole Roma Tomatoes, Diced
2 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
½ cups White Wine
1 cup Heavy Cream
Cayenne Pepper To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
Salt To Taste
Chopped Fresh Parsley, To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain when pasta is still al dente; do not overcook!

Sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoons Cajun spice over chicken pieces. Toss around to coat. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a heavy skillet over high heat. Add half the chicken in a single layer; do not stir. Allow chicken to brown on one side, about 1 minute. Flip to the other side and cook an additional minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a clean plate.

Repeat with remaining chicken. Remove chicken, leaving pan on high heat.

Add remaining olive oil and butter. When heated, add peppers, onions, and garlic. Sprinkle on remaining Cajun spice, and add salt if needed. Cook over very high heat for 1 minute, stirring gently and trying to get the vegetables as dark/black as possible. Add tomatoes and cook for an additional 30 seconds. Remove all vegetables from the pan.

With the pan over high heat, pour in the wine and chicken broth. Cook on high for 3 to 5 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Reduce heat to medium-low and pour in cream, stirring/whisking constantly. Cook sauce over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until cream starts to thicken the mixture. Taste and add freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, and/or salt to taste. Sauce should be spicy!

Finally, add chicken and vegetables to sauce, making sure to include all the juices that have drained onto the plate. Stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until mixture is bubbly and hot. Add drained fettuccine and toss to combine.

Top with chopped fresh parsley and chow down!

A quick heart attack recipe

White Cheese & Sausage Pasta
from Culinary in the Desert

I made this for dinner last night. It was good! Gut bomb good! Spicy from the sausage. Ridiculously creamy and gooey from the cheese and bechamel sauce. Stupid Good. I more or less followed the recipe; even though I didn't have it in front of me, so some of the quantities were off and I ad libbed a bit. Added some shredded white cheddar cheese (1/2 cup) as well as the mozzarella and parm.

Instead of using another baking dish, I made sure to boil the pasta in an oven-proof pot. After I drained the pasta, I dumped it back in the pot and poured the sausage/sauce mixture over, stirred and baked. Saved us a little extra clean up. I used a half pound of spicy ground pork sausage, not turkey sausage. I don't think it matters much. But use the spicy if you like some good heat. If not, use regular, but add a little red pepper flake. You want some heat to cut through all the creamy, cheesey goodness.



4 cups dry rigatoni or any other short tube-shaped pasta
8 ounces hot Italian turkey sausage, casings removed
2 TB butter
3 TB all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
3 ounces fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp salt
4 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 400

In a large pot of boiling salted water, add pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet over medium heat, add sausage - cook until browned, stirring to crumble. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.

Add butter to the same skillet and allow to melt over medium heat - whisk in flour and allow to cook, whisking, for a minute or two. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cook, stirring, until thick, about 8 minutes - remove from heat.

In a large bowl, toss together the sauce, cooked sausage Parmesan, crushed red pepper and salt. Scoop the mixture into a 7" x 11" baking dish coated with nonstick spray. Scatter the top with mozzarella. Bake until bubbly and the top is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.

Random Flavors

This was a fun adventure the other evening. We've been trying to avoid the store and use up any of our pantry items. I don't really have a name for this, but it's almost a cross between an Alfredo and Carbonnara sauce, with some French, German or Alsatian influences.

I started by browning some bacon pieces until crisp. I set the bacon aside and poured out the fat. To the pan I melted a TB of butter and browned about half an onion, diced small. When the onions were just beginning to brown I added some dried thyme and rosemary. I deglazed the pan with one cup of chicken broth. When that had reduced by half, I added some heavy cream. Bring this to a simmer and allow to reduce further until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Turn off the heat and add about 1/2 a cup of grated Parmigiana Reggiano. Stir until incorporated, melted and smooth. Add half the bacon to the sauce and add whatever cooked pasta your are using. Stir. Garnish with the rest of the bacon.

This was very tasty, but it was an interesting blend of flavors. With the rosemary and thyme, I felt the sauce was more of an Alsatian style cream sauce. With the cheese and bacon I felt it resembled a standard Alfredo or Carbonnara. The bacon also seemed to lend itself to a German influence as well. All in all, it was tasty. But a tad salty, with the bacon and cheese, I didn't need an extra few pinches of salt to the cream. Oh well. Great on a chilly night.

Delicious

Saturday night's dinner was delicious. We ate a ton of it. Very satisfying. Filling and just all over good. A Pasta Frittata is a great way to use up leftovers, if you have them. This is virtually the same version as the last time I made only. Almost. The recipe called for marscapone and creme fraiche. I subbed in cream cheese and sour cream. Perfect. I used a variety of fresh and dried herbs as well. The chicken was from a few nights ago when we had pesto. Basically, all I had to do was boil the pasta, toss it all together and bake it for 25 minutes. Yum.

The tomatoes were not perfectly ripe. That was the one downside. After I diced them, I set them on a paper towel lined plate and sprinkled them with salt. The salt did two things that I think added to the final awesomeness. 1) some excess water was drawn out, this will keep your dish from getting too wet during cooking. 2) the salt directly enhanced what flavor was in the tomatoes. If I hadn't done that I think the tomatoes would have been water bombs in this casserole and not appetizing.

This is a keeper.

Finally

This summer was crappy in the garden. 1) We didn't grow any vegetables. We made the decision not to after the massive failures last year. 2) But I did try my hand at some basil, in addition to my rosemary. Someone--THING--had a field day with the basil and at most I had a small handful here and there. Not enough to do much with.

So I sucked it up and bought basil. Finally, I was able to make a batch of pesto! This was a good batch...

The true Green Goddess sauce!

Tossed with some fresh fettucine and some quickly seared chicken breasts, a perfect fast meal. The only downside, I underestimated the salt in the parm and over salted the pesto. That's ok, I like salt...but this was a touch much!

In other great news, the fridge is here and working. I went grocery shopping yesterday to start restocking...spent a hefty sum of money, but at least half of the cash went to replacing goods we had to toss and restocking the freezer. I did manage to rake in over $40 in savings with my Giant card! Woo hoo!

Greek Casserole

The other night before the fridge collapsed and died in front of us, I went grocery shopping. I came home with bags and bags of stuff to get us through about 10 days. Sadly, we lost a lot of that food. However, I did manage to squeak out one amazing recipe. This is a keeper and I look forward to making it again!

Greek Pastitsio
with "meatloaf" mix instead of lamb (I don't like lamb!)

Brown the ground meat. Season with salt, pepper and cinnamon. Add some onions, red wine and tomato paste. Simmer and bubble until delicious.

Mix the ground meat mixture with cooked pasta, in this instance I used ziti. Tubular pasta would be best.

Keep the pasta mixture in an oven proof dish. I used my Dutch oven. Top the pasta with a cheesey, cream Béchamel sauce.

Bake until golden brown and delicious.

Serve hot! Enjoy.

A quick note, I cut the recipe in half. That was enough for two people to have two hefty servings each and I believe there was one left over for lunch the next day. Also, as noted, I used a package of "meatloaf" mix from the store (beef, pork and veal). This worked great and had a wonderful flavor. If you don't like lamb, try it. Also, I'm sure you could use ground turkey, chicken, beef...whatever. It's a great dish and versatile.

Pastitsio
from Everyday Food

This is the ultimate Greek comfort food, a hearty casserole of cinnamon-spiked ground lamb baked with penne and a Parmesan cheese sauce.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 8

Coarse salt and ground pepper
1 pound penne, cooked and drained
2 pounds ground lamb
2 medium onions, diced
1/2 cup red wine
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
6 TB butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
3 cups milk
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cook pasta, and drain; reserve. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium heat, cook lamb, breaking apart pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, 6 to 8 minutes. Add onions; cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Transfer to a colander; drain fat, and discard. Return lamb to pan; add wine. Cook over medium heat until almost all liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in tomato paste, cinnamon, and 2 cups water; simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 15 to 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. (***This step only took about 3-5 minutes, I probably had the heat too high, but there were no adverse affects...save yourself the time, when the mixture has thickened, move on...no need to force it to simmer for 20 minutes!)

4. Make Parmesan Cheese Sauce while mixture is simmering: In a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat; whisk in flour until incorporated, about 30 seconds. In a slow steady stream, whisk in milk until there are no lumps.

5. Cook, whisking often, until mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in cayenne, if desired, and Parmesan.

6. Add pasta to lamb mixture; transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Pour sauce over the top, smoothing with the back of a spoon until level. Bake until browned in spots, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from oven; let cool 15 minutes before serving.

Grab Bag

I have some catching up to do. Last week was busy. Tuesday was bookclub, so dinner was at 2 Amy's in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC. Great pizza and delicious fried risotto balls. Wednesday I had a staff retreat to attend. Wednesday night I had to prep food for my departments two day staff retreat. Thursday night I got home way late and was exhausted. Friday, same thing, home later than normal and just darned pooped out. Saturday we had a nice dinner at home and Sunday we spent in Baltimore at Honfest. This week should be a little more normal....???? Fingers-crossed.


The full staff retreat included a pot-luck component for lunch, I brought a pineapple & kiwi fruit salad, with ginger-lime syrup. This is super fun, easy and very tasty. Make a simple syrup of water and sugar. Put a few chunks of peeled, smashed ginger root into the syrup while it simmers and the sugar dissolves. When it cools down, add some lime zest and lime juice. Pour over the fruit. The tropical flavors all blend together beautifully for a refreshing dessert.


I think this with Saturday night's dinner. It looks pretty rough, but was fairly tasty. This is a play on the Tequila Turkey Fettucine. I used leftover chicken and pork roast instead of turkey and rum instead of tequila. It was tasty. I'm not going to go out of my way to make it again, but as a leftover dinner, it worked!


When I prepped last weeks menu, there was one special request. Chicken Picatta. I was pleased with the final outcome. First, I only make this with angel hair now. The lemony-buttery sauce seems to play best with the thin pasta. Also, I used shallots instead of garlic. No reason, but I loved the more mild flavor of the shallot. And I went a step further with the chicken. Normally, I just coat the thin chicken breasts with seasoned flour, then fry them. I wanted a more substantial coating this time, so I did the flour/egg/flour combo and received high marks! Good times. I had a few extra chicken breasts and turned one into a delicious sandwich for lunch. Great!

Quick Dinner

This is a short week for me with our pending vacation. Here is Tuesday night's dinner.

These are the store bought, "fresh" tortellini pasta with a sausage filling. I'm pretty fond of these filled pastas. They are generally pretty tasty, the cook fast, they are reliable and can make a satisfying meal.

While the water boiled and the pasta cooked, I made the sauce. Onions in olive oil (1/2 onion, finely diced), garlic, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. When soft and just starting to brown...

...pour in about 1/2-1 cup dry white wine. Simmer until reduced by half. Add one bell pepper, chopped, and simmer until tender, then add 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes, cook until heated thru. Adjust seasoning to taste.

Toss cooked pasta in the sauce and serve hot. A pretty balanced meal, fairly low fat, home-cooked and satisfying. Good to go!

No Knife Tomato Sauce

Sometimes I am in no mood to cook. I don't want to pull out pans, I don't want to pull out and fresh onions, garlic or herbs, I don't want to chop anything. But yet I'm famished and need to make something for dinner.

I have a variety of ways to make my tomato sauce. This is one. It's all pantry goods. Canned tomatoes (diced and sauce), olive oil and herbs and spices. For about a dollar, I had tasty sauce for two large servings of sauce and pasta and one smaller serving leftover for a later lunch. The sauce was done before the pasta water even came to a boil.

Not bad for no desire to cook!

No Knife Sauce
1 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1-2 TB olive oil
1 TB "Pasta Sprinkle"
1/2 tsp dried onion flake & dried garlic
Salt & Pepper

In a medium pot, bring the olive oil to a light simmer, add the diced tomatoes and sauce. Stir. Add the seasoning, salt and pepper. Taste & adjust. Simmer until your pasta is cooked.

Turkey Version

Last night's dinner was another from the new issue of Everyday Food. A year ago, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, inc. purchased the Emeril Lagasse brand from the man himself. An interesting idea...BTW, if anyone wants to buy my brand...for the right price, we can talk.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up, last night's dinner was an Emeril recipe that was in MSLO's Everyday Food. A lighter version of the classic Bolognese Sauce using turkey instead of beef & pork. It was good and I ate a giant plate. But I didn't love it! I'd make it again. It's certainly a great alternative for folks who don't eat red meat or the other white meat, but I felt there was something, I don't know what, but something lacking in the depth of flavor, which I find odd considering the effort we put in to create those flavor layers and depth. This sauce builds on itself, layer after layer, you'll see when you read the recipe. So I find this odd and that something was missing...

Well, let's get started.

The dish starts by using turkey bacon and once crispy and rendered, carrots, onions and celery are added. They chill out for awhile, then you add the ground turkey. Let that cook, then add white wine and garlic. More chilling out.

About half way through the cooking, you add tomato paste and ultimately some chicken broth and some half & half.

Serve with some hearty pasta. But still, something was missing...

Awww, fresh Parmigiano Reggiano.

As I said, it's good, but I think I prefer a more classic Bolognese sauce. (Here is a really great recipe and a fairly good recipe).

Emeril's Turkey Bolognese
(serves 8)

10 slices turkey bacon, finely chopped
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 carrots, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
salt & pepper
2 pounds ground turkey
3/4 cup dry white wine, Sauvignon Blanc
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1/2 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup chopped parsley

1) In a large, heavy pot cook bacon over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes. Add onions, celery and carrots; season with salt & pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are tender, 8-10 minutes.

2) Add the turkey; cook, breaking up meat with a spoon, until no longer pink, 8-9 minutes. Add the wine and garlic; cook until wine has almost evaporated, 10-15 minutes. Add tomato paste; cooking, stirring occasionlly, until lightly browned, 7-10 minutes.

3) Add broth and half-and-half; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce to a simmer, and cook until sauce is thick and creamy, about 30 minutes more.



I cut the recipe in half and intended to have 4 meals/2 evenings of dinner, out of it. I served a little too much last night and then I wanted some for lunch (I've eaten the same thing for lunch all week and need something new!), which left just a wee bit for another meal. So, not quite four full meals, but almost. So this full recipe could serve 6-8 for a big dinner.

Chicken w/Capers and Red Peppers

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I made dinner from a recipe in Everyday Food. What was listed as Chicken with Artichokes and Capers became Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers and Capers. It was very delicious, simple, filling and easy!

Let's get started.


I purchased the pre-sliced chicken cutlets from the store this time around because I knew that I wasn't going to have as much time to prep the chicken for this dinner. This is fine, but normally I like to save money and just buy a large pack of chicken breasts and slice them myself. But in a pinch this works.

You cover the cutlets in a light coating of flour and seasoning. This is done for two reasons. One, the flour provides a slight bit of protection to the chicken, from the heat of the pan. Two, and perhaps more important, the flour helps to create more fond in the bottom of the pan. If you look at the picture above, you will see where the previous cutlet was in the pan. It left some bits and pieces in the pan. When you add liquid to the pan, that fond will dissolve and help to create a lovely sauce. The bit of flour in the fond will provide a little bit of help in creating a sauce with a little more body.


This photo made me think that this recipe would work swimmingly with fillets of fish as well!


After the chicken has cooked, you add some chicken broth and simmer to reduce by half. The reduced sauce is then brought to life by the addition of capers and in my substitute version, roasted red peppers. The minute I got home from my grocery store, I started roasting my red pepper. If you aren't comfortable with roasting your own peppers, I suppose you can used jarred peppers. When you turn off the heat, you add some butter to enrich the sauce and a small handful of chopped parsley for more green flavor and garnish.


Serve chicken and sauce with angel hair pasta. Buttery and acidic with strong, bright flavors from the capers and sweetness from the peppers. Yum. I think I like this a little better than the standard Chicken Piccata. I'm not sure that's an argument that will win in our house, but it's is certainly a great dish that I will make again!


Chicken with Capers and Roasted Red Peppers
inspired by Everyday Foods Chicken with Artichoke Hearts and Capers

2-4 Chicken Cutlets
1/2 cup of flour
Salt & Pepper
1-2 TB olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 roasted red pepper (or 1/2 to 1 cup jarred roasted red peppers)
2 TB small capers, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped parsley
Angel hair pasta

This recipe can move fast, so have all your ingredients prepped before you begin.

On a plate or in a small bowl, mix the flour with salt & pepper. You can use additional seasoning if you like (a pinch or two or dried thyme and/or cayenne pepper). Coat the cutlets in the flour and shake off excess.

In a large frying pan over medium-high heat, add one tablespoon of olive oil. Carefully place the cutlets in the pan. Work in batches if necessary. Leave the cutlets in the pan until they nicely browned on one side, then flip to the other. Remove to a warm plate and continue with the next batch if you need to.

At this point, I added the dried pasta to boiling water to cook. The pasta took five minutes to cook and the sauce cooked in about 6 minutes. Near perfect timing.

To the frying pan, pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil in the pan. Scrape up any browned bits (fond) in the bottom of the pan. Allow to reduce by half. Add the roasted red peppers and capers. Turn off the heat and add the butter and parsley. Stir until the butter is melted. Return the cutlets to the pan and coat in the sauce.

Plate your cooked pasta and serve the chicken and sauce. Enjoy, I certainly did!!!

Dinner

One of the dinners last week used some some more ingredients in the pantry and veggie drawer. Much like the Tomato and Roasted Pepper soup the night before, this was a chunky marinara sauce made with crushed tomatoes, finely diced onion and a green bell pepper. This was an unplanned Two From One dinner! Awesome!!!

I love that I can make a lovely, homemade tomato sauce in the time in takes to boil water and cook the pasta and for a fraction of the cost of store bought jar sauce!

Garlic Lovers Stand Up!

This really is a favorite of mine. Easy, fast and full of great flavor. Of course, Garlic is the predominate flavor, but there is also wine, olive oil, some red pepper and grated Parm. The only note is to roast your garlic in advance, so you don't have to wait an hour to make dinner.

Three Garlic Pasta

We need to fry some garlic slivers.


Until they are golden, brown and crispy. Garlic Flavor 1.


Then we chop some garlic and saute in the same olive oil as the fried slivers. Toss in some red pepper for a little heat. Garlic Flavor 2.


As the garlic softens and starts to just barely get brown, pour in some wine.


Then we add some soft, gooey, sticky, awesome, roasted garlic. Let it dissolve in the wine and simmer for a minute. Garlic Flavor 3.


Add some chopped parsley, toss with spaghetti and garnish with crispy garlic slivers and freshly grated Parm.