Make a Meal: Spinach-Basil Pesto Pasta with Caprese Chicken Stacks

 

For Labor Day, I had a fun little girls weekend with my two Maids of Honor. Amy and I went southbound 35 to visit Greer for a little time together, just the three of us and one thing I knew I could count on was a fun cooking night. We went to a local farmers market to find inspiration and ended up deciding on an Italian theme. We bought fresh vegetables and Italian peppers, then found a fresh pasta place where we bought three fresh pastas: a fettuccine, a spinach fusilli, and a pecorino-peppercorn cavatelli pasta. For sauces, we bought a vodka sauce from the pasta place then made our own fresh basil pesto. For toppings, we sauteed the fresh farmers market vegetables to toss with pasta and olive oil, then made some easy balsamic chicken chunks. When we put it all together, it was ahh-mazing. See below for our little pasta bar!

 

Fast forward to this week, Mr. Max and I were meal planning.  I was still having some serious food envy of all the leftovers that Greer had, and DVR envy from the ridiculous amount of recorded hours of The Hills, but that's another story. We may or may not have bypassed our Saturday plans to explore Austin so that we could watch 10.5 hours of that reality TV gold.

 

Busted. Name that scene! The "he's a sucky, sucky person" confrontation was one of the best between Lauren and Hiedi, next was the "you KNOW what you did" at Les Duex.

Back to the featured post dish, I was craving some pesto after thinking about the delicious stuff we made over Labor Day and decided to pick up some whole wheat fusilli to revamp my ever-changing chicken caprese. This recipe was quick and easy, I made it on one of my busiest work weeks of the year, meaning I was tired, maybe slightly grouchy and was ready to eat some dinner so I could go to bed. That said, this took all of 20 minutes from prep start to plated finish.

Nutritional facts can be found here.

Grocery List:
Recipe Yields 3-4 servings
For the Pesto Pasta (forgive me, rough estimates I tried to track as I went)

• 1/2 cup spinach
• 1/2 cup basil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 large pinches of Parmesan
• 2 tbsp. pine nuts
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1.5 cups spinach, packed
• 2 cups pasta (I made extra for Mr. Max's appetite and a lunch portion)

For the Caprese Chicken

• 3 chicken cutlets (4 oz. each)
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• Italian seasoning
• 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 6 thin slices of part-skim mozzarella
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved  
• Balsamic glaze

To start, pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees. Bring salted water to a boil and add the pasta noodles. Cook for about 8-10 minutes or until al dente. 

Next, combine the spinach, basil, garlic, pine nuts and Parm in the food processor and grind. Add the olive oil slowly and continue to grind until you've reached a smooth, desired pesto consistency.

Toss your tomatoes in just a splash of olive oil. Spread the halves over a baking sheet covered in aluminum foil and sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Roast in the oven for twenty minutes until puckered and slightly browned.

Take your chicken cutlets and cut them in half so you have small, slider size slabs of chicken. Place them in a bowl and toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar to evenly coat the chicken. Sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

Place the chicken in a foil lined baking dish and place in the oven for 4 minutes to cook. After 4 minutes, remove from the oven, flip and add the sliced mozzarella to the top of each chicken. Cook for another 5 minutes.

 

 

Once the pasta is ready, drain and dry with paper towels. In a large saute pan, combine the pasta with the pesto and add the additional spinach to let wilt over low-medium heat.

Once the chicken is ready, make a bed of the pasta on a plate or bowl and then top with the chicken and scoop of roasted tomatoes, then drizzle with an ever so slight balsamic glaze. In the picture at the very top of this post, I had stacked the chicken with layer of tomatoes between and again on top. In the one below, the two chicken pieces are side by side.

Tastefully yours,

Smoked Mozzarella Baked Penne

 

For Lent last year, I gave up pasta and during that time, I discovered I could replace my pasta cravings with spaghetti squash. However, every now and then, a penne cannot be substituted and when I came across this recipe, I caved. I found this on Pinterest and slightly adapted to thin it out a little - ignoring the bread crumb and butter topping, replacing the heavy cream with Half & Half, and using whole wheat pasta rather than regular penne noodles. This was a great weekend meal, making plenty of leftovers for a few lunches to begin the week with. I do think I could have used 2 crowns of broccoli, next time, I will include more green in there! Could also try it out and substitute spinach or asparagus spears.

Click here for the nutritional facts calculated at SparkRecipes.com.

Grocery List:

• 1 crown broccoli, florets cut small
• 12 oz. whole wheat penne pasta
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 cup onion, minced
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. fresh thyme, leaves removed from stem
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup Half & Half
• 2 chicken breasts, chopped into small half-inch chunks
• 3 oz smoked-mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 8 oz. jar sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained and chopped

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. In a shallow pan, or skillet, add the broccoli florets with 1.5 cups of water to steam on medium-high heat. Once bright green, remove from heat, drain and set aside.

In a pot, throw in your noodles and I typically fill with water until about 1-2 inches above the pasta line, then add a hearty amount of salt to the water. Bring to a boil and cook until al dente, drain and set aside.

In a skillet, add the olive oil and onion to saute over medium-high heat until translucent, about 3 minutes.

Add the garlic and thyme. Saute until fragrant, about 2 minutes.

Add the flour and whisk in with the olive oil, garlic, onion and thyme, then start pouring in the Half & Half, a little at a time, whisking to help break up clumps before adding more.

Add the chicken chunks and cook until no pink remains in the center.

Add the broccoli florets and sun-dried tomatoes.

Now add about 2/3 of the shredded mozzarella and stir until melted in.

See those noodles you drained and set aside?

Throw them in! Toss well to coat in the sauce.

In a greased baking dish, pour the contents of your skillet in and top with any additional mozzarella cheese.

Bake in the oven for 18 minutes, uncovered. Remove when browned and bubbling.

Scoop and serve! For dinner, this pairs well with a light side salad and a crisp Viognier or Sauvignon Blanc.

Tastefully yours,

Lobster Mac and Jack

As a new contributor for the Dallas Observer's "City of Ate" blog, I get to dine at restaurants each month to try a favorite dish. My premise is to recreate that dish healthier, cheaper and/or easier from home. Sometimes all goals will be met, sometimes none of them will, but it's been a fun journey so far that I look forward to continuing!

For this assignment, my friend Erin and I hit Victor Tango's to indulge in their Crab Mac and Jack Gratin - an incredibly cheesy, creamy side dish favorite. I am not allowed to play the "journalist" card so I have to weasel answers out of staff the best I can as an "average-Joe" patron. The place was packed so the waitress was my best ingredient-hinting source and all I was able to get from her was that there were 6 cheeses, lots of heavy cream and Pancetta used.

The restaurant version was $13.00 before tax and tip and we were in and out in less than an hour. I had seafood, heavy cream and six cheeses to try to emulate without breaking budget or the waistband. My work to meet cheaper, easier and healthier was cut out for me!

In a Central Market class that Mr. Max and I took last spring, we did a Lobster Mac and Cheese, so I took to that recipe for some guidance as I began my restaurant recreation process. That class recipe only used four cheeses and did not include a roux, which is typically created in cream based sauce-making. Due to time constraints, I only had one night that I could do this to meet the deadline, and of course, I ran into one slight problem: my grocery store was out of crab meat - BUT - they did have lobster. Though my objective is to recreate the restaurant dish, the D.O. food critic editor challenged me to include my own twists, so I felt this classified as such and I went with a different crustacean.

The crab in the original version was a silent ingredient; it sat atop but didn't bring any flavor or even texture to the dish. As far as the Pancetta, we couldn't find a trace of it while eating it, though they said it was an ingredient, and it was listed on the menu. I went ahead and picked up some fresh shavings of the meat from the deli to incorporate at some capacity.

For the sauce, I wanted to try to make it as healthy as possible. I bypassed the fat and calories of the heavy cream, opting for Half and Half instead, paired with whole wheat macaroni elbows. As for the six cheeses, the lobster already put me closely over budget at $10 for half a pound, so I needed to be tactful. I picked up some reduced fat cream cheese to help fill the void that the heavy cream would leave, then after discussion with a self-proclaimed cheese expert on melty, tasty, non-sweating cheeses, I grabbed shredded Parm, Gruyere, Fontina and a Cheddar-Jack mix.

Experience with sauces has taught me, you need a double boiler-type method when dealing with cheeses to keep them from burning or curdling when directly melted on the heat source. After starting the noodles, I was able to create a make-shift double boiler with a pot and a ceramic mixing bowl.

I added a little butter to provide a liquid for the cheese as it started the melting process. I used about 2 cups of cheese altogether consisting of approximately 10% Parm Reggiano, 20% Gruyere, 20% Fontina and 50% Cheddar Jack. I used 3 oz. of softened cream cheese, then added in tablespoon pours of the Half and Half as it melted, mixing it in before adding more. I reserved 1 cup of the macaroni water to help with thinning, and add a little starch if needed, using about 2 tbsp. worth total.

 

My thought for the Pancetta was to cook it in a skillet, creating tasty grease. I cooked four pieces, put them aside, then added the chopped lobster to saute and coat in the flavoring. I am a huge fan of creole seasoning in my macaroni so I decided to add that to the lobster chunks for additional taste, something the crab lacked in the restaurant version. I then chopped up one of the Pancetta pieces and mixed it in with the lobster.

I learned in a cooking class to coat noodles with just 1 tbsp. of butter when using a heavy sauce to help keep the dish creamy, rather than coagulating into clumps. I used 3/4 of the sauce to coat the noodles, then spooned them into individual casserole dishes. I then topped each with the remaining 1/4 bowl of sauce. The restaurant version used a few breadcrumbs sprinkled atop the crab and then baked for the finished result. While I am not a fan of heavy bread crumbs, I decided to pull out the Panko and mimic that texture, only using a light sprinkle, dusting the lobster-pancetta mix spread along the middle of the mac and jack.

I turned on my broiler and popped this in the oven for 2 minutes until top looked golden brown. The taste was wonderful - the lobster method was a vast improvement in the overall taste from the initial dish, it added so much more dimension! However, my cheese sauce did not maintain the same kind of velvety, creamy consistency as the restaurant version. It had the right taste to it but missed the full-bodied consistency that heavy cream would have created, and seeped through every bite of the restaurant version.

The results? If I could take my flavorful lobster topping and use of the whole wheat noodles, combined with their cheese sauce, it would have been a perfect combination! In terms of ease, my process took about 40 minutes from start to finish, which worked well on an evening where I wanted to be home, and still less time than the restaurant experience. The cost of just one portion would come out to roughly $10.67, no tax or tip needed in my kitchen. The amount of ingredients I purchased made three portions and my grocery bill for everything, rounded to the nearest dollar, was $32 - much higher than going to the restaurant and ordering up just one for myself. My use of whole wheat noodles and Half and Half certainly made it healthier. 

For my full recipe, click here!

Tastefully yours,

Fall Penne Pasta

I found this recipe on FoodandWine.com through Pinterest and couldn't wait to try it out. Studying it more closely, I saw that I had some adapting to do. I already knew I wanted to add roasted butternut squash but then came the shock: it called for a whole stick of butter to make the balsamic sauce! Wide eyed and jaw dropped I knew that would not be the case in this kitchen tonight.

I decided to use only 1 tbsp. of butter to savor some of the rich flavor from the original recipe and add a few tablespoons of olive oil to compensate for the missing 7 tbsp. I had wanted to add toasted almond slivers to complete the taste of fall, but discovered I didn't have any in the pantry. I roasted the butternut squash in thyme and rosemary to add more dimension. This was a perfect weeknight meal, taking under 30 minutes to prepare. I hope you enjoy the rich, smooth tastes of this pasta dish as we did!

Grocery List:

• 2 cups whole wheat penne pasta
• Salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 3 tbsp. + 1 tsp., divided
• Pinch rosemary and thyme
• 1 cup butternut squash, small cubes
• 8 spears asparagus, chopped
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp. brown sugar, unpacked
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp. shredded Parmesan (Parmeggiano Reggiano provides best flavor!)

Start by heating the oven to 450 degrees. Toss your butternut squash cubes in 1 tbsp. olive oil and sprinkle a pinch of rosemary and pinch of thyme. Set the timer for 20 minutes and place in the oven to begin roasting.

Boil your pasta in well-salted water until al dente, drain in a colander and set aside. Chop your asparagus, creating three pieces from the full stock and spear. Toss in 1 tsp. olive oil and after 10 minutes in the oven for the squash, add the asparagus to roast for the final 10 minutes.

In a small sauce pan, add the balsamic vinegar until reduced to about 3 tbsp. worth in the pan. Whisk in the brown sugar until dissolved, followed by the pepper. You can see below the line from the reduction...

In a microwavable bowl, melt the butter and add additional 2 tbsp. of olive oil. In a mixing bowl, combine the penne, roasted veggies, olive oil/butter mix and vinegar. Add 2 tbsp. Parmesan cheese and gently toss altogether.

Spoon into bowls and you are ready to serve! Add a big salad for an additional helping of nutritious greens.

 I used shredded Parmesan on hand to garnish

Tastefully yours,

Lasagna Roll-Ups

At our girls night, I decided to try a lasagna roll-up, allowing me to make two different kinds of lasagna in one dish. What I thought was my way of gratifying an indecisive nature, ended up being a perfect dish in both quantity and taste! The roll-up method can allow you to be slightly health conscious when it comes to a lasagna by using less pasta, sauce and cheese than a traditional layered lasagna.

On my way over to dinner that evening, I had a new stuffing/topping idea pop into my mind. I made a quick detour to the grocery store to pick up a fresh basil pesto and a Tuscan-herb rotisserie chicken, for the sake of this new craving, cooking time and ingredient resources. Later as we were beginning to make our food, I saw the creamy goat cheese and that was the last piece needed for the new rendition. I still wanted to make a roll with a traditional ricotta blend along with the additional toppings I had in mind, so this is a dual recipe for your viewing pleasure.

The ingredient quantity below is for one roll of each type. This was very quick and simple to make, perfect for a weeknight meal, with a very palate-pleasing result!

Grocery List:
for Goat Cheese/Chicken/Pesto lasagna

• 1 whole wheat lasagna noodle, cooked
• 1/2 cup shredded rotisserie chicken (I happened to stumble upon a Tuscan Herb version at Central Market)
• 2-3 tbsp. creamy goat cheese
• 3 pinches shredded Parmeggiano Reggiano, divided
• 1/4 cup pesto, divided
• 2 tbsp. tomato sauce
• 1 pinch of asiago cheese

for Ricotta/Spinach/Tomato sauce lasagna

• 1 whole wheat lasagna noodle, cooked
• 1 tbsp. pancetta
• 1 tbsp. fresh chopped spinach
• 2 - 3 tbsp. low fat ricotta cheese
• 3 pinches shredded Parmeggiano Reggiano, divided
• 1/4 cup tomato sauce, divided
• 1 pinch asiago cheese
• 1 pinch low fat, part skim mozzarella cheese

We will start with the goat cheese/chicken/pesto roll-up. Take your cooked noodle and lay it flat and pat dry. In a small mixing bowl, combine the goat cheese and 2 pinches of Parm in a bowl, then add in 1 tbsp. of pesto. Mix well and spread along the noodle.

Next, top with the shredded chicken.

Add the rest of the pesto amount to the bottom of the casserole dish in the area that the noodle will sit. Carefully roll the noodle as tight as you can, then place seam-side down on top of the pesto.

I personally enjoy the mix of pesto with a tangy tomato sauce so I topped the pesto roll with the 2 tbsp. of tomato sauce, followed by the asiago and Parm cheeses. 

In another small bowl, mix your ricotta with one pinch of Parm.

Make sure to pat the noodle dry, especially this one using spinach as it naturally produces moisture as it cooks. Spread the cheese mixture along the noodle, top with the pancetta and chopped spinach. Roll tight into the lasagna roll-up.

After spooning a small amount of your tomato sauce on the bottom of the casserole dish, place the lasagna roll seam-side down.

Top with remaining sauce, the asiago and mozzarella.

Set in the oven on 375 and bake for about 10 minutes, or until cheese is golden and sauce is bubbling. Remove from the oven and let cool for about 2-3 minutes, then dig in!