Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year's Eve Pasta

So, I kind of made this up. But it was really, really tasty. You can leave out the chicken if that's not your thing and you can add some cheese if that is your thing. It's pretty flexible.

1 pkg. fettuccine
1 pkg. pre-cooked, roasted chicken breast strips
1 box frozen spinach
1 can quartered artichoke hearts (not marinated ones)
1 can hearts of palm/palmitos, cut into small rounds
1 container fresh, sliced mushrooms
3 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
3 lemons
1/2 -2/3 cup olive oil
salt

Okay. So here's what I did, I think:
Start bringing your salted pasta water to a boil, add the pasta and cook as directed. Meanwhile, sautee mushrooms in a little bit of olive oil in a large skillet. Dice the chicken up and add to the mushrooms once they've started to cook. Microwave the spinach to thaw, as directed on package. Add crushed garlic to the skillet and add salt to taste (I think I might have used a teaspoon or a little more). Once spinach has thawed/warmed up, add it to the skillet and zest one of the lemons into the skillet and stir well. Add palmitos and artichokes and continue to cook until all ingredients are warmed through.
When pasta is finished cooking, reserve 2/3 cup of the pasta water before draining.
In a separate pan (I only have one skillet, so I moved the warm vegetables to a bowl and just used that pan), add the juice of three lemons (about 1/2 cup, maybe a little more) to the olive oil and whisk until warm. Add pasta water to the sauce and boil until it reduces a bit, whisking as you go.
Toss veggies, pasta and sauce together and serve!
Pretty easy, even though it sounds complicated. You're just cooking noodles and adding a bunch of veggies to the skillet.
You can add a bit of grated Parmesan cheese to the top if you want, but I can't have dairy, so I didn't.
Let me know if you try it! I'd love to know what you think.

2 comments:

lubke-moss said...

Happy Anniversary! Nick and I just celebrated 6 on Dec. 28th. It just flies by doesn't it?
What a GREAT Christmas gift for Emma. I know that both her and you will have a wonderful time with that making many lovely things as well as memories. :)
P.S. I got your message and you can send the pics to candace.moss@vacationclub.com
Happy 2009 to you and your family!

mindy said...

hooray! thanks for posting this recipe...this is going on next week's dinner menu, for sure.