52 New Recipes | Spring Pasta with Chicken
I saw this pasta primavera dish in my Cook's Country magazine and thought, ooh, this would be a nice way to use up my last zucchini from my Hungry Harvest box.
But I knew that my family would prefer it with some added protein, so I briefly marinated some chicken breasts in an oil/garlic clove/salt/sugar mixture and cooked them in a skillet.
The verdict: I thought it would be better with more of a sauce.
Ha.
And if I'd been thinking clearly, my ongoing "everything should have more sauce!" philosophy should sent up a red flag before I tried this recipe.
The problem is that the "sauce" on this is pretty mild...oil, lemon juice, and fresh herbs, basically. It barely counts as a sauce!
So, when I had leftovers yesterday, I added a healthy dose of pesto and I felt like the dish improved by about 83%.
Must. Have. Sauce.
The good thing about this recipe project is that I am learning what types of foods aren't our thing.
Namely:
-foods with insufficient sauce levels, especially pasta
-breaded chicken breasts with a mild (er, boring) sauce
So. I'm gonna keep that in mind when I choose my next new recipe!
What new recipe did you try this week?
Tell us about it!
(Did it have enough sauce???)
I made pasta last night too and it had juuuust enough sauce. Making real pasta (as opposed to gluten-free) is pretty rare for me, because my husband can't eat it, but I pulled the pregnancy card last night and served him leftovers (but they were GOOD leftovers!) while the rest of us ate the pasta. Orecchiette, which I've never had and was kind of fun. The sauce I made up. It was bacon, radish greens (lots of radishes in the garden at the moment), dry vermouth, a tablespoon of tomato paste, frozen peas, heavy cream, and some of the pasta water. And then lots of Parmesan mixed in. Yum. Exactly what I wanted. And the kids were excited about it too. After they got over the radish greens. 🙂
We made a dish this week that looked a lot like your picture, but thankfully this one did have a sauce - pasta with chicken, spinach, and cherry tomatoes in creamy feta sauce from a Cook's Illustrated 30-minute cookbook. We all liked it and it was nice to have a different (very easy to whip up) sauce! (But even then, I added some things like arugula and toasted pine nuts because it is sooo easy for chicken pasta dishes to just be so bland.)
The sauce is the boss! Good call on adding the pesto--I bet that was mighty tasty! This week we're trying a new Puerto Rican dish, asopao de pollo. It's a chicken version of paella. We'll see how it goes! I'm excited to cook it because it uses up ingredients we already have in our pantry.
I've made dishes before that look pretty, but unless the sauce is flavorful, were pretty boring. I'm going to make a Jalapeno Pork Chop recipe this week that can be considered new, I guess. I was on the hunt for cream of jalapeno soup, but didn't find any, so I am improvising with what I have. Should be interesting!
Yes! This one looked lovely; it just was lacking in flavor.
My son served 2 years of his apprenticeship in a hatted restaurant. This is the Australian version of Michelin star. His boss was always telling them that they had to add more salt. They did this by putting a little of the pasta water to the sauce they had made. But I have to agree that the sauce finishes a pasta dish.
Heavily salted pasta water is key to any quick spring/summer pasta dish. It improves the flavor and the mouth feel. I always pull out a cup before I drain the pasta and add it to taste to the final dish. It's the secret of all my Italian relatives from the Old Country!
When I look through my recipe binders and books almost all saucy recipes have my handwritten note: "Double (or triple) the sauce!!!"
Well, I had several experiments this week. The first was sort of silly and not worth the effort. I had seen on youtube someone making homemade corn dogs but before the corn dogs were lowered into the oil, they were rolled in cut up frozen French fries so you get corn dog and French fries all in one delicious bite. Only I didn't use the recipe posted on the video, I used a different corn dog batter recipe that couldn't hold up to the weight of the French fries and they sort of all sloughed off the dog before I could get it into the oil. So I made the rest of the corn dogs with out fries and they were good but not worth the mess/calories/expense of deep frying.
The next day I hosted a Greek(ish) dinner for my brother's birthday and tried making Greek nachos for an appetizer (which I would not make again) and souvlaki (which I would totally make again).
Finally, I tried a new recipe for crock pot BBQ pulled pork. It was good but that is a dish I find hard to mess up. Interestingly I do not like a lot of BBQ sauce in this dish despite my love of extra sauciness.
It's almost lunch time, and the photo makes me soo hungry! The sauce in the recipe does sound a bit bland. I'm glad pesto did wonder to the dish!
Since I've been sick with a cold all week, my culinary efforts have been minimal, although we actually only gave in to frozen pizza for one meal. My new recipe was one born out of desperation: I had frozen homemade chicken stock, no cooked chicken, a husband who doesn't like egg noodles or pasta, some random produce and a bad cold. So I made chicken and rice soup using the stock with no added meat, adding in generous portions of carrot, celery, onion and garlic. I think it was very good, but since I couldn't taste it that much, I'm not positive. My husband was not thrilled, but he knew better than to complain to a sick woman who is cooking his supper. He ate it for supper and ate the leftovers for lunch the next day, at least.
Well, Use Up The Leftovers Pasta was made on Monday
Went something like this:
From the pantry: Assortment of odd noodles that I boiled up
While that was happening....
From the depths of my fridge
Leftover kielbasa, diced onion, green onion, a lonely bacon strip that needed a home, some cheddar, and some black beans
From my counter top I whirled in the blender
Some tomatoes that were looking pitiful, a green and red bell pepper, a ginormous jalapeno, rest of the garlic and some basil..
Pushed the button...needed liquid...hmmm...back to the fridge...a ha! splash of the cream that Id forgotten about that was hiding behind the pickle jar...note to self...pick up parmesan and mozzarella....Alfredo on Friday..yum...anyway, blended all that up (vroom)until nice and pureed...added that to the other afore mentioned ingredients and mixed every thing together in a mixing bowl, put this interesting concoction in in my trusty casserole dish and put it in a 350 degree oven...
about 45 minutes later...
Served it up...said a little prayer that my loving reactionaries would approve...annnddd..
It was actually pretty darn good..
Pureed veggies make awesome sauce
Have a wonderful day!
I tried a new recipe on Monday at last. It was delicious and the sauce was good. I should have doubled it though. We like sauce here too. Kids wouldn't eat it, but that meant that hubby and I had leftovers for lunch. Even better second day heated in the microwave (although I overcooked the chicken... my bad). If you like sundried tomatoes and a creamy sauce, this one was a good one and served on top of pasta. Yum!
https://cafedelites.com/2016/05/19/sun-dried-tomato-parmesan-chicken/
My husband made a bolognese sauce without tomatoes for me as I have acid reflux and can't eat tomato based sauces. He started with leftover brisket gravy that had lots of onions, garlic, carrots, celery, rosemary, oregano, parsley, and red wine blended into it. He chopped and browned a large container of mushrooms and a pound of ground beef, then added basil and bay leaves and simmered it for 20 minutes. (He did add a scant tablespoon of ketchup as such a small amount wouldn't affect me since it made many servings but it added a hint of tomato.) He layered it with whole wheat spinach ravioli and baked it. It was soooooooo good!
Aww, that was so thoughtful of him!
Yes, and he makes a fabulous roast chicken too. I am very lucky indeed!
I made this recipe with asparagus instead of spinach and amped up the sauce by adding more butter/olive oil & garlic. Good idea on adding the chicken - I'm going to do that next time. 🙂 Love my ATK books/mags for new recipes!
Have you tried adding parmesan? I love pasta tossed with veggies and olive oil if I put a couple of tablespoons of parmesan on top.
I tried pancake muffins from Joy the Baker blog. Makes a perfect after-lunch dessert at work.
I hear you on the sauce! I need sauce, but my husband needs more sauce. Yesterday I made Chicken Tikka Masala at home and after we had eaten and my husband's lunch was packed I was starting to wonder what to do with the rest of it since I didn't feel it was enough sauce for two people to eat through. What are some ways that you make more sauce happen?
I think I am that rare person who usually feels there is too much sauce. I really enjoy milder flavors. Your pasta looks delicious to me! 🙂
Everything is better with pesto. 🙂