Left-Overs - Part 1: Pasta with Chicken and Balsamic Mustard Sauce

Over the weekend I made chicken paninis for Cillian and his running buddy, Tom.  I had bought four chicken breasts, and threw them all in the marinade of balsamic vinegar, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds.  I cooked three of the four breasts for our sandwiches, and left one lonely breast in the marinade.  I also had some left-over cooked spagheti (dressed only with a little butter and parmesan), so here is what I made for lunch:

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast, marinated in balsamic, water, chicken spice seasoning, and mustard seeds
- Canola oil
- 2T shallots, finely minced
- 1/2c wine
- 1/2 - 1c chicken stock
- 1T mustard
- 1t mustard seeds
- Salt and pepper as needed
- Cooked noodles

Heat your oil in your pan.  Add the chicken breast and saute until cooked.  (You could cut your breast into bite-sized pieces before cooking, but I wanted to let it cook longer and really have the balsamic marinade get carmelized and dark, dark brown, so I left the breast whole and cut it up after it was cooked.)

Remove the cooked chicken, deglaze with wine, add shallots and cook until almost all of the liquid has evaporated.  Add the chicken stock and mustard seeds and reduce until sauce consistency.  Add mustard, salt, and pepper.

Toss noodles, chicken, and sauce.  Voila, lunch in 20 minutes (also great reheated)!

Linguine with Roasted Red Pepper Parmesan Cream Sauce

Over the weekend we had brunch with our lovely friends Elle and Bryan at Dino - a great spot a few blocks from our house.  Elle mentioned she had made a roasted red pepper cream sauce recently, which inspired this recipe.  It is definitely worth splurging on the calories every once in a while for a good cream sauce!  Unfortunately we were so excited about eating it that I forgot to take any pictures. 

Ingredients:
- 2 roasted red peppers (I used jarred, but you could make them fresh), finely diced
- 1/4c white wine
- 1/2c cream
- 1/2c good quality parmesan
- 1 sprig of tarragon, finely chopped
- Cyanne pepper to taste

In a skillet combine the red pepper and white wine and cook over medium heat until almost dry.  You don't want to burn the red peppers, but you want to really concentrate the wine flavor into the peppers.  You'll know when it's done when there is just a little bit of liquid around the bits of red pepper.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the cream, stirring.  You're going to bring this up to a very light boil and reduce just until it is a thin sauce consistency.  Basically, once it coats the back of a spoon, you're ready to add the parmesan, as the cheese will thicken it.  

Add the parmesan, tarragon, and pepper to taste.  Keep hot until you're ready to toss with your pasta.

Serve hot!

Squash Lasagne

Lasagne is a wonder food.  You can sneak all kinds of health things into it and it only gets better!  Also, by replacing the ricotta cheese with low-fat cottage cheese and substituting in skim motzarella, you can make it truly healthy.  Here is a late-fall version that includes my favorite seasonal vegetable - squash!

Ingredients

- 1 package lasagne noodles

- Large tub of low-fat cottage cheese

- 4c shredded part-skim motzarella cheese

- 2 jars pasta sauce

- 1 medium sized acorn squash. sliced in thin slices and peeled.

- 1/4c shredded parmesan

Start by spreading a thin layer of pasta sauce in the bottom of your pan.  Then layer the uncooked noodles, cottage cheese, motzarella and squash. There is no need to buy fancy tomato sauce for lasagne.  Particularly when you're adding squash or other vegetables, you don't need the extra flavor in the sauce.  I buy whatever is on sale and then store it until I'm making lasagne.  We buy the nicer stuff when it is plain spaghetti or something where the sauce really features.

Add two more layers of sauce, pasta, cheese, and squash (or however many fit in your pan).  I like the very top to be sauce, cheese, and then the 1/4c parmesan cheese. 

Cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes, or until everything is hot and bubbly.  Cut and serve!

If you want to add more protein to this dish, you can brown ground turkey breast and then add the pasta sauce to the turkey meat.  Follow the rest of the same directions as shown here.  You can also add or substitute in additional vegetables.  Some of our favorites are spinach (add lots, it wilts down to almost nothing), tomatos, eggplant and red peppers.  This is a great way to get picky eaters to get a full serving of vegetables.



Ten Minute Dinner - Ravioli with Brown Butter Balsamic Sauce

Usually I avoid the "easy" recipes because they often leave me feeling like something is missing.  This recipe definitely does not!  It is quick just because of the nature of the prep methods, not because something is being dumbed down or left out.  And the result is oh so wonderful.

Ingredients:

- Store-bought ravioli (~18 ounces)

- 6oz unsalter butter (if you only have salted, you can make it work)

- 2-3T balsamic vinegar

- Salt & Pepper

- Sage (optional)

Instructions:

- Brown your butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  If you've never made brown butter before, it can be a little intimidating, but once you've done it once you'll wonder why you'd ever use regular butter again!

- Put the butter in your pan and heat over medium heat.  The butter will start to foam and bubble.  This is the water being released from the butter.  You can swirl or stir your saucepan occassionally as this progresses.  Once the foaming subsides, the fat solids in the butter will start to cook and toast.  You'll notice little brown toasty bits in the bottom of your butter, as well as the liquid butter fat starting to take on a nutty color and flavor.  The pictures below show first the butter in the initial bubbly/foamy stage and then nearly cooked.

- Once the butter smells nice and toasty/nutty, remove it from the heat.  I usually transfer it to a bowl at this point to make sure the cooking stops.  The last thing you want is bitter burnt butter.

- Put your balsamic vinegar in a blender (or if you are very good at emulsifying with a whisk, you can leave it in the bowl), turn it on, and slowly drizzle your brown butter into the vinegar.  Blend for just a few seconds, until emulsified.  Add a pinch of salt and pepper for seasoning.  If you want, you could add sage, or other herbs here. 

- Meanwhile, cook your ravioli according to the directions on the package.  We used goat cheese and basil ravioli from whole foods, which were amazing.

- Toss the ravioli in the brown butter balsamic sauce and serve!

Bon appetite!

Creamy Tomato Pasta with Kale

This is a great weeknight, easy recipe for fall or winter.  The kale and tomatos make it seem almost health despite the cream sauce!

Ingredients:

- 1 bunch kale (can use green, red, or rainbow), cut into ~1/2 inch strips

- 1 can crushed tomatos (I used fire-roasted)

- 1 medium sized yellow onion, finely chopped

- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

- 1 cup heavy cream

- 1 cup chicken stock

- 1 cup shredded good parmesan

- 1 package wide egg noodles

- Olive oil

- Salt and pepper

Heat about 2T olive oil in a pan.  When hot, add the finely chopped onions and garlic.  Saute until soft and translucent.  Meanwhile, get your water boiling for your pasta.  When it is ready, salt the water and add the egg noodles.  You can substitute in different pasta, but I think a wide noodle is good for this sauce. 

Add the canned tomatos with their juice and the kale.  the kale will seem like an enormous amount, but don't worry it will cook down significantly!

Once the kale is wilted, continue to cook for about 2 minutes to cook off some of the tomato juices. 

Add about 1 cup chicken stock and about 1 cup heavy cream.  Reduce until it is sauce consistency.  Add the grated parmesan.  Season with salt and pepper.

When your noodles are ready, toss everything together.  You could top with more parmesan if desired.  I also think that this pasta would be good with chicken or maybe even shrimp.  It would be ideal with left-over tender roasted chicken that could be pulled off the bone (or a roasted chicken from the grocery if you're in a rush!).



Bon appetite!