Recipe: Seared Chicken and Angel Hair Pasta in a Lemon-Pistachio Cream Sauce

My mom and I spent most of the morning and early afternoon in our pantry, sifting through piles of candies and granola bars, rearranging and fitting new appliances (like my pasta maker and her rice steamer) onto shelves, and organizing just about everything else. Being surrounded by food of course got me thinking about what to make for dinner...we have tons of cans of tomatoes, some nice marinades, and an assortment of pastas, but I was at a loss when it came to deciding what to make. My mom kept pushing lemon-flavored dishes at me—"How about chicken in a nice lemon sauce?...didn't you make something with lemon once? Some sort of sauce? Maybe we could have something like chicken piccata." I sat down at the counter, idly flipping through a Betty Crocker best chicken recipes cookbook while she searched for a dinner recipe she could make for an event she's hosting this Sunday, and I came across a recipe for chicken with pistachios and lemon wedges. I loved the idea of combining salty pistachios (we have two huge bags of them in the pantry) with tart lemon, and I knew I could create my own unique dish to utilize these ingredients. I blended together toasted pistachios, parsley, garlic, and some seasonings to create the flavoring for my cream sauce and used leftover half-and-half to create the sauce base, then tossed the finished sauce with angel hair pasta. Chicken seasoned with dried lemon peel, salt, and pepper, cooked in butter, olive oil, and lemon juice completed the dish. This dish is very easy to make and the ingredients work so well together.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded to approx. 1/2 inch thickness, cut in half
• 8-12 oz. angel hair pasta, or other long, thin pasta
• Approx. 1 pint half-and-half or heavy cream (I only had about a 1/2 pint of half-and-half, which was not quite enough)
• Cornstarch-and-water mixture, as needed (to thicken the sauce, if necessary)
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios, toasted*
• 1 garlic clove
• 2-4 tbsp. Italian flat-leaf parsley (I had about 1/4 of a bunch of parsley left and just threw in all the leaves from that)
• Approx. 1 tbsp. fresh lemon zest
• Approx. 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Dried lemon peel, to taste
• Butter, as needed
• Olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a pan)

*To toast the pistachios, preheat the oven to 350*F. Make sure the shells are removed, then place them on a small baking sheet and heat in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until lightly fragrant and lightly golden-brown.

Directions

In a medium pot, bring lightly salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 4-7 minutes). Once done, drain the pasta and return it to the pot, then add a little butter to it to keep it from sticking. In the meantime, heat 1 tbsp. butter, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, and a little olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add the chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, and dried lemon peel (and lemon pepper if you happen to have it), to the pan, and cook until it's no longer pink in the middle (about 10-15 minutes). Once you get the chicken in the pan, combine the pistachios, garlic, parsley, 1 tbsp. lemon juice, lemon zest, salt, and pepper in the food processor and pulse to blend, doing so until the pistachios are broken into small pieces (don't pulverize them though!). In a large pan, add 1-2 tbsp. butter and melt over medium heat. Add the pistachio mixture to the pan and cook for a few minutes until lightly fragrant. Slowly pour in the half-and-half, stirring constantly as you add it to the pan. Stir around the mixture and add a little more butter if desired, allowing the ingredients to blend. Continue to cook over medium heat, reducing the heat when the chicken gets close to being done. If the sauce seems thin, add a little cornstarch-and-water mix to the sauce (to be honest, I added a little too much, which made the sauce a little too thick, so only add a little at a time and allow it a few minutes to work before you add more if needed). Toss the cooked pasta with the finished sauce and top with chicken and some coarsely chopped pistachios.

The salty, nutty pistachios blend perfectly with the lemon flavors from both zest and juice, and they add a beautiful pop of green to the dish. Simple seasoning, with a splash of lemon, boosts the flavor of the chicken and completes the dish. 

Recipe: Spaghetti and Mozzarella-Stuffed Meatballs

I'm slowly but surely working my way through the recipes in my newest Giada De Laurentiis cookbook, and a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs—with a bit of a twist—was up for dinner on Wednesday night. It seems like every family has their own version of this classic dish—some people use spaghetti, others use a different type of pasta; some use marinara while others make a meat sauce; and everyone has their own opinion on what makes the best meatball (Fresh or dry breadcrumbs? Use a mix of meat or stick to one kind?). My grandmother's recipe included spaghetti with a marinara sauce and these small, tender meatballs that my cousin, Katie, and I have always wanted the recipe for but still haven't gotten. My dad's father's family was Italian and used to make up huge bowls of bucatini (a spaghetti-like pasta with a hole through the middle) with tender meatballs made with a mix of veal, pork, and beef. My mom makes her dish with a tomato sauce with meat, all-beef meatballs, and angel hair pasta. The recipe here, altered slightly, includes a simple tomato sauce with pancetta and a little dried red pepper flakes for a kick, and meatballs made with both veal and beef, stuffed with a tiny cube of mozzarella—it's absolutely delicious. The meatballs are incredibly tender and flavorful, and I absolutely loved cutting into them and seeing the warm, creamy mozzarella ooze out onto my fork. The sauce is simple and it's a nice change from a typical marinara or meat sauce. A sprinkle of Parmesan or Pecorino Romano brings the whole dish together, and it's wonderful paired with a dry red wine.

Serves: 4-6
Prep. time: 15-20 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 8-16 oz. angel hair, spaghetti, or other long pasta
  

For the sauce:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 6 oz. pancetta, diced (prosciutto can work in a pinch, but pancetta really should be used)
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1, 14 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

For the meatballs:

• 1 small onion, grated (I used a cheese grater, and it worked quite well)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley
• 2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used shredded and simply cut it up finer with a knife)
• 1/3 cup Italian-style seasoned dry breadcrumbs
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• About 1 tsp. each salt and pepper
• 8 oz. ground beef
• 8 oz. ground veal
• 2 oz. mozzarella cheese, cut into 1/2 inch cubes (if you can find smoked mozzarella, use that instead)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400*F and place one of the oven racks in the lower third of the oven. In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the meatballs except the meat, then lightly mix. Add the beef and veal and, using your hands, gently "knead" and mix the ingredients together until well-blended. Shape the meat into 1&1/2 inch round balls and place on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper (or, if you don't have parchment paper, spray the cooking sheet with cooking spray)—you should be able to make at least 16 meatballs (I ended up with 21). Make a small depression in each meatball and place a cube of mozzarella inside, then re-roll the meatball so that the mozzarella is completely encased inside. Bake the meatballs for about 15 minutes (put them on that lower oven rack), until cooked through and fork-tender (meaning they can be cut easily with a fork). Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pancetta and cook until slightly golden brown (about 5-7 minutes), then, using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta from the pan and set aside. Add the onion to the skillet and cook for about 5 minutes, then add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper, and pancetta and simmer over medium-low heat, uncovered, for about 15 minutes. While the sauce is cooking, bring a medium-to-large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 4-5 minutes). Drain the pasta, return to the pot, and toss with a little olive oil to keep the strands from sticking together.
Serve the pasta with a spoonful or more of sauce on top (or mix the sauce in with all of the pasta in the pot and serve), and place a few meatballs on top. Garnish with Italian cheese, like Parmesan or Pecorino-Romano, if desired.

This is a great version of "spaghetti-and-meatballs" that's well-worth trying. It's incredibly easy to make, packed with flavor, and, like any good pasta dish, both the sauce and meatballs can be frozen and thawed out later for an easy weeknight meal. I know many people take issue with eating veal, and though it is the major reason these meatballs are so tender, if you're totally against using it in the meatballs, try using a mix of beef and pork. Using more than one meat in the meatball adds flavor and enhances the texture of the meatballs.

Recipe: Five Herb Pesto

I was left with mostly full packages of fresh chervil, basil, chives, sage, and Italian flat-leaf parsley after making my herbed spaghetti squash side on Sunday night and I was a little concerned about how I was going to use them all before they started wilting and melting into slimy brown puddles in the fridge. It's not often that I make a dish that requires that variety of fresh herbs, so I decided the easiest way to use them up would be to make a pesto. A few handfuls of toasted pine nuts, some shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino-Romano, extra virgin olive oil, and a clove or two of garlic, plus the mix of herbs creates a complexly flavored pesto, all at once bitter, spicy, nutty, salty, and "green." While I wouldn't recommend eating it straight from a spoon—its light scent may trick you into believing its flavor is also light—it's delicious spread on a crusty piece of Italian bread, smeared on a sandwich, or even tossed with pasta, and it's especially good after it's had a day or two to sit in the fridge. I really just kind of winged it when it came to measuring out the herbs—I had used a bit of each for my spaghetti squash, so I used just about all of the remaining herbs in the pesto (each container held about 2/3 oz. fresh herbs)—so I encourage you to play around with the amounts of each herb that you use. The more basil, the better. The less sage, also probably the better (it has a very distinct smell and taste). The chives will add a slightly salty, onion-y flavor, while the parsley will add its distinct "green" flavor. Chervil has a very very slight smell of fennel or anise, but you can use a pretty good amount of it because the flavor is fairly delicate. Do not go overboard on the garlic cloves—because they are not cooked, they have a spicy quality to them that stands out in the pesto and can easily overwhelm it. Add one to start, and add just one more after you've tasted it and if you've decided the pesto can handle it.

Yields: 1 to 2 cups
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: Just a few minutes to toast the pine nuts
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Food processor

Ingredients

• A few tbsp. fresh chervil, coarsely chopped
• A few tbsp. fresh basil, chiffonade cut (roll up the leaves then cut the roll, creating skinny, long slices of leaf)
• A few tbsp. fresh chives, coarsely chopped
• A few tbsp. fresh Italian flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
• A few tbsp. fresh sage, coarsely chopped
• 1-2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 - 1 cup shredded Italian cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano or Pecorino-Romano are the best)
• A little over 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted (preheat the oven to 350*F and toast the nuts on a small pan for just a few minutes, checking frequently. Toast until they are fragrant and just barely golden-brown, but not burnt. Really, it only takes about 3-5 minutes.)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Combine the five herbs, garlic, cheese, pine nuts, and some of the olive oil, plus a little salt and pepper, in the food processor and blend until well-combined. Add in the rest of the olive oil and blend until the mixture is well-blended, with no chunks of garlic or pine nuts and no large pieces of herbs mixed in. The mixture will be thick—it should be more like a spread than a liquid sauce.

This pesto is incredibly flavorful and definitely gets better with age. The blend of herbs adds bitter, salty, spicy, "green," and nutty tastes to the mixture and it's absolutely perfect spread on a slice of Italian bread. It could easily be used as a pasta sauce or a condiment for a sandwich, and I'm betting it would be great as a substitute for tomato sauce on a pizza or you could mix it with mozzarella cheese and use the mixture to stuff chicken breasts. Versatile, flavorful, and a great way to use up some leftover herbs.

Recipe: Puff Pastry-Wrapped Chicken with Broccoli

I came across this recipe while browsing pins on Pinterest and immediately knew I HAD to make it—it just sounded too good to pass up. The ingredients are all things we love: crispy bacon, tender chicken, flaky buttery puff pastry, and smooth cream cheese, combined in the perfect way. The chicken is stuffed with a flavor-packed cream cheese filling and wrapped up in puff pastry, then baked until golden brown and delicious. The best part about this meal?—It looks kind of fancy and, though it looks like it could take forever to make, it's one of the simplest dishes I've shared here. You simply mix the filling, stuff a little into pockets cut into chicken breasts, wrap the chicken up in puff pastry like a gift, bake, and serve. Easy enough for a weeknight, but pretty enough for a fancy dinner (though flaky puff pastry can be a bit messy when being eaten).

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30-35 minutes, plus 5-7 minutes for the broccoli
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 frozen puff pastry sheets, rolled out slightly with a rolling pin (make sure to thaw the sheets a few hours ahead of time)
• 2-4 green onions, finely chopped
• 5-6 oz. cream cheese (I bought an 8 oz. block of 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese and used a little over half of it)
• 4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
• A few tsp. flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• Broccoli, fresh or frozen (if you buy frozen, just cook the whole bag; if you buy fresh, cook enough so that each person gets about a cup to eat)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400*F.
In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, bacon, parsley, green onion, and a little salt and pepper. Use a flat utensil (a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon would work well) to blend well.

The filling

Cut small pockets into the chicken—cut right down the middle, being sure not to cut all the way from end to end (leave about 1/2 inch on either end, so that it's a true pocket and the filling won't spill out either end), and make sure you don't cut all the way through the chicken, otherwise you'll just have two pieces of chicken, which is not what we're aiming for. Stuff a spoonful or two (or three) into the pockets (it's okay if the filling pokes out over the edge of the pocket...more filling just means more flavor).
Place one chicken breast per single puff pastry sheet, and be sure to place the chicken breasts in the middle of the sheets. Brush a little of the beaten egg along the inside edges of the pastry. Fold over the short ends first, on either end of the breast, then fold one long side then the other, forming a package. Be sure to brush egg onto any place where pastry will touch pastry—the egg helps it stick together. Brush the completed package all over with the egg mixture—this will create that beautiful golden brown color that makes pastries look so appealing.

Beautiful little golden brown packages

Place the puff pastry-wrapped chicken breasts on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the pastry is golden brown and the chicken is cooked through (I used a meat thermometer to make sure the chicken was done enough—it should be 165*F inside).

Perfectly cooked chicken

When the chicken is done cooking, turn the oven off and leave the chicken in the oven to keep it warm. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil and add the broccoli, cooking for 5-7 minutes, until bright green and tender (but not soft or mushy). Drain and return to the pot, keeping the lid on when not serving so as to hold in heat (broccoli is notorious for not holding heat well). Remove the chicken from the oven.
Cut the puff pastry packages in half and serve each person half, with a side of broccoli.

This was such a fun dish to make and it turned out so well! The puff pastry is flaky, buttery, and light, and the creamy filling in the chicken oozes out when you cut into the package, which I absolutely love. The broccoli helps lighten up the dish a bit, and I highly recommend a nice crisp white wine on the side. While normally, people might be used to eating a whole chicken breast for dinner, you really only need a half with this dish because the filling and pastry make it so filling.