Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Pasta with Pancetta, Chicken, Pecorino and Broccoli Rabe – A HANGOVER HELPER!

December 31, 2019 by Mary 3 Comments

Happy New Year to everyone!! Be safe out there celebrating. I wanted you to have this recipe of Pasta with Pancetta, Chicken, Pecorino and Broccoli Rabe as it can be a real hangover helper for tomorrow. Top it with an easy-over egg for extra protein, should you need it, and you’ll be in good shape to be able to enjoy New Year’s Day, 2020.

Pasta with Pancetta, Chicken, Pecorino and Broccoli Rabe

Comes together in only 40 minutes!

This dish comes together easily and quickly and should take no more than 40 minutes from start time to serving, even with a hangover. I use only one pot for the pasta and to blanch the broccoli rabe, in order to remove the bitterness.

Cooking for me now, is at once a pain and a joy. It is labor intensive – as I have to clean up too. However, when I do muster the energy, I find I get my mojo back and truly enjoy it! I can literally feel getting back in the grove. Because this recipe that I made up on the fly is really worthy of sharing with you, dear readers, I wanted to make sure you got it today, for help with tomorrow.

Admittedly, I LOVE to cook. I hate to clean. But I love to eat good, healthy food. So, there you have it; I continue to cook. It’s just that some things I make may last 4 – 5 meals. Which means I have to plan carefully, around dinner dates with friends or just needing the company of other humans as I frequent certain restaurants by myself and eat at the bar, hoping to have nice conversations with folks, besides of course, the bartender.

Toasted breadcrumbs are always a good addition.

I absolutely adore toasted breadcrumbs on top of pasta dishes, so I added them here as I had some leftover croutons (that I had sautéed in duck fat to make them divine!) that I just crushed to make crumbs. Genius, right? (heh)

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Wishing you all health, happiness and everything you’ve dreamed of for 2020!! Another new decade!

PASTA WITH PANCETTA, CHICKEN, PECORINO AND BROCCOLI RABE – serves 3 – 4

½ lb. of pasta – Strozzapreti or fusilli
Coarse sea salt
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 ¼” thick slice of pancetta, cut in ¼” cubes
3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, all fat removed and cut into ¼” slices
5 cloves of garlic, sliced
½ of a fresh serrano chile, thinly sliced with seeds and membrane
½ cup of chicken broth, preferably homemade or low salt if in a box
1 head of broccoli rabe, ends trimmed off and sliced in 11/2” sections
½ cup of Pecorino cheese, grated
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
Toasted bread crumbs or crushed croutons

The easy process.

Put a large pot of water on to boil. After it comes to a boil, salt liberally with the coarse sea salt. Salt only after it comes to a boil so you don’t pit your pot. Add the chopped broccoli rabe and blanch for 1 – 2 minutes. Remove the broccoli rabe with a strainer, leaving the water to boil to cook your pasta.

Meanwhile, warm the oil in a large skillet, on medium heat, large enough to hold everything. Add the pancetta and sautè for 5 – 6 minutes until nearly cooked. Then add the garlic and your chicken strips and cook, tossing until all pink is gone from the chicken. Slice the serrano chili over the skillet with a hand mandoline and toss.

Meanwhile, salt the boiling water again and add your pasta, cooking it 2 minutes less than the lesser number on the package for your cook time.

Add the drained broccoli rabe to the skillet with the chicken and toss and continue to cook.

When the pasta is nearly at its time, add the chicken broth to the skillet.

Drain your pasta and add it to the skillet. Toss everything together for about 2 – 3 minutes to finish cooking the pasta. Do a taste test for the pasta, keeping it al dente. Then add the grated cheese and a good amount of fresh ground pepper. Toss everything together and serve in warm bowls.

Top with toasted breadcrumbs and serve with LOVE.

Beef tenderloin dinner

December 30, 2011 by Mary Frances 6 Comments

I want to tell you about our Christmas Day dinner. It was so good and some of you may want to replicate parts or all of it for your New Years Day dinner. I adapted Melissa Clark’s recent recipe in The New York Times and it was delicious. Everyone raved about the meat!!

And here’s a funny story about buying the meat. I had heard a radio ad for Stew Leonard’s whole beef fillets. He was advertising them for $7.98 a pound! I thought, wow, that’s worth a drive to Yonkers. So my husband gets up at 7 am on Saturday to get this. He tried to do it on Friday morning but found our car dead in the garage. We drive a Prius and the engine is so quiet, the garage guys often forget to turn it off. This has happened twice before so we made a sign to tell them to remember to turn it off. But, the last time we drove the car, we forgot to leave the sign in the front seat!

So off he goes on Saturday morning. I tell him to ask the butcher for enough beef for 7 people plus a few leftovers. Well he comes back with this gigantic piece of meat – 6.6 pounds!! Like enough for 13 – 14 people. But then, look at the majority of people who shop at Stew’s – they’re fat! Our country is getting so obese it’s ridiculous. And he paid $11.98 a pound. The $7.98 per pound price was untrimmed with a 30 – 40% loss factor. Talk about a scam to get you in there.

But, this meat was good, so there’s a little redemption.

Here’s my menu.

Appetizers:
Pate de campagne
Truffle duck mousse pate
Cornichons, picholine olives, lightly salted cashews
Artichoke dip – my recipe in an earlier blog post
Assorted brown rice chips, whole wheat pita and sliced French baguette

Dinner:
Pancetta and asparagus soup with black pepper – from Judy Rodgers and the Zuni Café cookbook, served with homemade Polish bread
Beef tenderloin with horseradish sauce– adapted from Melissa Clark and The New York Times
Mashed potatoes with cauliflower and roasted garlic – Lee Bailey – Long Weekends cookbook
Haricot Vert with walnut oil, sea salt and toasted walnuts
Oven roasted plum tomato halves with oregano (they were so good the night before and made the plate look Christmas-y next to the Haricot Vert)

Dessert:
Ethiopian coffee
Christmas cookies, of course
Peppermint chocolates

Here is the tenderloin recipe that I have altered for our taste.

GARLICKY BEEF TENDERLOIN WITH HORSERADISH SAUCE – adapted from Melissa Clark and The New York Times
– serves 12 – 14

1 (6.6 lbs.) beef tenderloin, trimmed and tied
1 1/2 tbs. kosher salt, more to taste
1 1/2 tsp. black pepper, more to taste
1 heaping tbs. chopped fresh rosemary
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
1.5 cups crème fraîche
1/4 cup white horseradish
Several dashes of Tabasco

Season the tenderloin all over with the salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic. Cover the meat and refrigerate overnight. Let it come to room temperature for 2 hours before roasting.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Wipe off as much garlic and seasonings as possible with a paper towel. It tends to burn and the flavors have penetrated the meat overnight.

In a large roasting pan over two burners and high heat, heat the oil. Add the meat and thoroughly brown all over, 4 minutes per side. Brown all 4 sides.

Place the roasting pan on the middle rack of the oven and roast until an instant-read thermometer shows 120 degrees (for rare), 10 to 20 minutes. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes before carving.

In a small bowl, whisk the crème fraîche and horseradish plus a few dashes of Tabasco. Serve alongside the tenderloin.

Assuming your meat is a good quality cut, you will LOVE this!

Now if you want any of these other recipes, do let me know.

Frozen pancetta

October 19, 2011 by Mary Frances Leave a Comment

Some years ago, my butcher in the city, Bob, of Espisito’s Pork Store gave me the greatest tip. As he noticed, I like pancetta, so one time he mentioned that I could keep several slices in the freezer at all times, take them out one at a time and they will thaw very quickly to use. As you may have figured out by now, I adore pancetta. Just a little bit gives huge flavor to any dish. (although I am not a fan of the latest craze of bacon on desserts – yuk!) For instance, the Broccoli Rabe recipe outlined earlier is usually made with pork sausage, with the fat left in the dish. So making it with chicken sausage is so much healthier and just a touch of pancetta give the big rich pork flavor that the chicken sausage cannot impart on its own.

So always have some on hand in your freezer!

Dinner in 30 minutes – REALLY!

October 12, 2011 by Mary Frances 3 Comments

This is no Rachel Ray joke!

We arrive home very late on Columbus Day, having had business meetings upstate in Hudson.

I know I have broccoli rabe at home in Manhattan. I grab a pack of frozen sausage from the country house and do not put in it in a cool pack for the ride home so it will thaw. I will make pasta with broccoli rabe and sausage. However it is a mild Italian chicken sausage, BUT I have just picked a very hot serrano pepper from my garden!

Everyone is starved as we walk in the door at 8:30. I put all the other groceries away and get to work a little before nine. How can I get dinner on the table quick? I ask for help from Zach’s girlfriend, Agata, and she does a beautiful job peeling and slicing the 6 large garlic cloves. And I continue with the neatest thing being using the broccoli rabe near boiling water to bring to a rolling boil to cook the pasta. It also flavored the pasta as well. Dinner was on the table at 9:23, served with a lovely bottle of red wine for the four of us and it was a feast! I hope you enjoy this as much as we did. My husband said this was the very best version of this dish I have ever made! And, it has the magical pancetta in it to give it the big full flavor. Here goes.

PASTA WITH BROCCOLI RABE AND CHICKEN SAUSAGE
1/4 cup olive oil
6 large garlic cloves, pealed and sliced
1 serrano chili pepper minced, with seeds (remove seeds if you do not like things hot)
1 3/8” thick slice pf pancetta, cut into small dice
1 bunch broccoli rabe, washed and cut into 2” pieces
1 -11/4 lb. mild Italian chicken sausage, removed from casing and broken up into small chunks
1 lb linguini – No. 6
3 tbs. pasta water
2 oz. grated Pecorino Romano cheese.

Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Mince the pepper. Warm the olive oil with the garlic, hot pepper and pancetta on low heat for 10 – 12 minutes in a large skillet while you’re cleaning the broccoli rabe. Trim the ends of the broccoli rabe and cut into 2” pieces, Wash thoroughly, twice. Put in a large pot, cover with at least 2” of cold water. Salt with coarse sea salt. Put on very high heat. When bubbles start to form on the edges of the pot, lift the broccoli rabe out with a hand mesh strainer or slotted spoon and drain in a colander. This partially cooks the rabe and removes the bitterness. You are saving the water to cook your pasta in. Raise heat on garlic mixture to medium, add your sausage and sauté until all pink is gone. Taste for salt and pepper but remember, the Pecorino is salty and that gets put in at the end. Meanwhile, bring the broccolli rabe water to a rolling boil and cook your pasta. Add drained broccolli rabe to sausage mixture and toss the combination. Save some pasta water and drain the pasta when done. I find it best to combine all in layers. Put 1/3 pasta in a bowl with 1/3 sausage rabe mixture and 1/3 cheese and 1 TBS. pasta water, toss to combine and continue with thirds and toss. Serve with more cheese if you like at the table, but it really isn’t necessary.

This dish is so creamy and delicious – even for people who say they don’t like broccoli rabe! It almost tastes like it has butter in it but it doesn’t. You will love it!