My philosophy of cooking is that a recipe is merely a suggestion.
Most everything I cook is del giorno (or d'jour for you French chefs) based on what I have on hand. Or alla Casa - the way I do it at my house.
We recently had Turkey Tetrazzini at a friends' home and it was delicious. As I had leftover turkey from Christmas dinner, I figured I'd give it a try...sort of. I looked up recipes on the web. Ok, well, I use those as suggestions.
So I got a pot boiling for the fettuccine (had no egg noodles) and put some broccoli in the microwave to cook al dente. (We eat a lot of broccoli).
I just happened to have about a half pound of Baby Bella mushrooms (small Portabellas) so I sliced them up and put them into my cast iron skillet along with a sliced onion and two chopped cloves of garlic and plenty of olive oil.
I also happened to have one small eggplant (I recalled Pasta alla Norma). So that got peeled, diced and sautéed in the skillet as well. As things got cooked to soft I added about two tablespoons of butter. (I never understand recipes that call for unsalted butter, then add salt) and let that melt into the mixture.
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| Olive oil, garlic, onion, mushrooms, eggplant |
Then I added about two or three tablespoons of flour (I never measure) to coat the veggies and absorb the butter like doing a roux. I looked for an open bottle of white wine, alas I only had a little dry vermouth, about two fingers left in the bottle, so that got added and mixed in to begin the sauce. Then a large splash of 2% milk (cream is way too heavy for me). The sauce thickened. Added pieces of turkey meat to heat in the sauce.
We had a little take-out container of sour cream in the fridge, about three tablespoons, and that went in along with some more milk to thin the sauce as it was thickening.
I had about 1/3 of a container of ricotta cheese, so that too went into the sauce. A little salt and pepper and finally Turned off the heat and added a few tablespoons of grated parmigiano (or was that Romano cheese that I grated last week?)
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| Butter, Flour, Vermouth, Sour Cream, Milk, Ricotta |
When the pasta was al dente I drained it over the broccoli in a large colander (to re-warm the broccoli) and returned it to the pot. I spooned the Tetrazzini sauce over it and tossed it well.
DINNER'S READY!
More grated cheese at the table and Leon and I pigged out. Found some white wine in the garage (where it is cool).
I think we both went for thirds tonight.
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| Served with Fettuccine and Broccoli |
