Leftover pizza topping pasta

   I had a few people over for pizza Sunday. The leftover toppings provided the flavorings for this impromptu pasta dish. What I had in the fridge was cooked spinach, mushrooms, roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, slices of artichoke heart, sliced onion, and some shredded mozzarella.
   I kind of knew that this stuff alone might not be enough flavor so I added leeks and for my own tastes some fresh frozen hot pepper.
   I started by sauteing the hot pepper and leek till tender. then I added onion, spinach, mushroom, artichoke, roasted garlic, and roasted pepper.
   Then I boiled some penne pasta till just tender. Then all the ingredients were tossed in a large bowl to combine. I added some of the shredded mozzarella, some grated romano cheese, a little olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed some more, It all went into a glass baking dish, was topped with some more mozzarella and romano. Then I popped it into a 350  oven for 15 min. to heat through and melt the cheese.
   It was very enjoyable. A slight variation would be to just add a little tomato sauce or whatever might be lurking about.
   It's fun to just put whats available together and see what you come up with.

   Ciao for now, Garlichut

Chicken and Broccoli Rape

   As is often the case, I found myself with too many things in the fridge that needed to be used. One was a chicken that had been boiled and taken off the bone and was sitting in the cooking liquid. The other was a bunch of broccoli rape. They were not intended to be used together, but seeing both of them there sparked an idea. Could they effectively be combined to create a tasty dish.
   So the chicken was shredded like pulled pork. The broccoli rape was added to sauteed onion and garlic. A little water was added and it was covered and simmered till tender. Then the shredded chicken was added along with enough chicken stock to make kind of a thick soup. That was cooked for 5 min.. I cooked some rice, served the chicken and broccoli rape over it along with some romano cheese and had a pleasant surprise. Hope you do too.
     Ciao for now,   Garlichut

Quick chicken dish surprise

   When I was busy working on My thanksgiving goose, I put together a quick chicken dish that was a pleasant surprise.

   1 Tbls. Veg. oil
   Flour for dredging
   1 Chicken breast halved width wise (to make it thinner)
   3 cloves garlic diced
   3 sun dried tomatoes diced
   1 Tbls. capers
   Juice of  1/2 lemon
   1/4 cup white wine
   2 Tbls. butter
   S+P

   Saute dredged chicken breast halves in a pan in the oil over medium high heat. When the first side is lightly browned. turn over and when it is cooked slightly on the second side add the garlic, sun dried tomato, and capers. After about 1 minute, add lemon juice and wine. Turn down heat and reduce till a little liquid remains. remove from heat and stir in the butter till melted.
   The surprise in this dish for me was the combination of the lemon and sun dried tomato, which I thought was an unusual combination that I thought worked very well.

 Buon Apetitto   Ciao for now,  Garlichut

 

Thanksgiving Goose again

   OK, so not all things go according to plan. I wasn't thrilled with the Goose. Probably operator error. The goose was somewhat tough. I think it was due to the high heat I used at the end, trying to crisp the skin. I wouldn't call it a complete disaster though, the sauce that I made was really good and the flavor of the goose was what it should be.
   Here is the ingredient list for the sauce.
   Olive oil
   Onion
   Garlic
   Red wine
   Brown goose stock
   Diced prunes
   Diced dried cherries
   Diced dried apricots
   Simmered and sieved cranberries
   Black pepper
   Honey
   Salt