Recipe: Chicken and Broccoli Pasta with a Blue Cheese Cream Sauce

I spent this past weekend with John in Memphis, a place I enjoy more and more each time I visit. The city has a great food scene and there are so many restaurants to try. Memphis is about more than just BBQ and Southern cooking—there are restaurants offering up fantastic pizzas, tantalizing ethnic foods, delectable desserts, and more. We stocked up on cupcakes from Muddy's (their mint icing is absolutely amazing), ate a homemade hot dog and pizza with Benton bacon at Hogs & Hominy, enjoyed cheesy bread at Houston's, and got to taste an assortment of dishes from a variety of restaurants at The Dixon's Art on Fire event. On Sunday night, we went to Boscos and I had a very tasty pasta dish with grilled chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and a gorgonzola sauce. Tonight, I was thinking back on that dish when I peered in the fridge and saw a container of blue cheese crumbles left over from some salads I'd been making last week. I'm a big blue cheese lover—I love the salad dressing, I love it crumbled on a steak or burger, and I really wanted to use that box of cheese to make a blue cheese cream sauce. That sauce, tossed with chicken, broccoli, and pasta, created a flavorful, filling dish that was perfect for this rainy day that Sandy sent our way today.

Serves: 4

Prep. time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes total (approx. 2 min. for broccoli, 5-10 min. for sauce and chicken, 11-13 min. for pasta)

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1-2 heads broccoli, cut into florets (or approx. 2-4 cups broccoli florets)
• 8 oz. farfalle, or other small pasta (penne, medium shells, etc.)
• A pat of butter
• Olive oil, enough to lightly coat the bottom of a large pan
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-2 inch cubes
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 pint heavy cream
• 1/2-1 cup blue cheese (more or less, as desired)
• 1-2 tbsp. dried chives, or more as desired
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Cornstarch and water mixture, as needed

Directions
In a medium pot, bring salted water to a boil, then blanch the broccoli florets (i.e. cook them for about 2-3 minutes in the boiling water). Drain them, then return them to the pot with cold water and some ice cubes (this will help stop them from cooking any further—the last thing you want is mushy broccoli). Add salted water to another medium to large pot, and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions (about 11-13 minutes). While the pasta is cooking, heat the butter and olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat and add the chicken. Season with salt and pepper and cook gently until tender and no longer pink in the middle (about 5-10 min.)—toss the garlic in near the end of cooking. While the chicken is cooking, heat the heavy cream over medium high heat in a small pot. Once bubbling, add blue cheese crumbles and stir to combine. If desired, add a little cornstarch-and-water to thicken the sauce. Reduce the heat to medium low. Once the pasta is finished cooking, drain it and return it to the pot, then drain the broccoli and add it to the pasta. Add the chicken and sauce to the mixture, season with salt and pepper, add chives, and toss in an extra handful or two of blue cheese crumbles. Serve hot, with added blue cheese crumbles, as desired.

This dish, though packed with blue cheese, is not overpowering, but rather quite light and flavorful. Broccoli is always delicious in a creamy sauce, especially one with cheese, and chicken adds some much-needed protein. A dash of chives and an extra spoonful of blue cheese crumbles completes the dish. 

Recipe: Lemon Chicken and Asparagus Pasta with a Creamy Goat Cheese Sauce

Yes, yes, I know...this sounds a whole lot like a recipe I shared just a little while ago, and really, it's kind of like that recipe, version 2.0. While that recipe was chicken-less and could be pulled together in less than 20 minutes, last night's meal had a little more going on: an actual sauce (as opposed to just straight, melted goat cheese with some seasoning), marinated chicken, and a little extra flavor.

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 15 minutes (plus at least 2 hours for the chicken to marinate)
Cooking time: 10-20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch wide, 2 inch long slices
• 8 oz. rotini, or other short pasta (penne, farfalle, or gemelli would work well)
• 1/2 or a whole bunch of asparagus, cut into 2 inch pieces
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup lemon-based marinade or dressing to use to marinate the chicken (I had a lemon-thyme dressing from a favorite restaurant in North Carolina, but you can use something from your local grocery store)* 
• Olive oil, enough to lightly coat the bottom of a pan

For the sauce

• 3/4 cup chicken broth or stock
• 1 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbsp. white wine (cooking wine is fine)
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. chives, finely chopped
• Dried sage, to taste
• Dried thyme, to taste
• 1 tsp. lemon zest
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 4-6 oz. soft goat cheese (buy a log of cheese rather than crumbles, because the log, when pulled apart, will melt better and faster)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Cornstarch and water mixture to thicken, as needed

*If you don't have a marinade or dressing, whisk a teaspoon each of thyme, sage, salt, and pepper together with a few tablespoons each of extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and white wine to create a quick marinade from scratch.


Directions
Place sliced chicken into a medium bowl with store bought or homemade marinade/dressing and allow to marinate in the fridge for at least 2 hours (any less, and it just won't have a lot of flavor).
In a small pot over medium heat, whisk together the olive oil, chicken broth, and white wine and cook until reduced by about 1/2. Add in the garlic (if you want, you can lightly saute it first, then add it in), chives, lemon zest, and seasonings (thyme, sage, etc.). Crumble the goat cheese into the mixture and whisk it in until it's melted and combined. Slowly pour in the heavy cream, whisking constantly as you add it in. Season more as needed, then reduce heat to low. If the sauce seems thin, add a little cornstarch-and-water mixture to thicken it. In the meantime, bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil, then add the pasta and cook according to package instructions. When the pasta has about 5 minutes left, add the asparagus to the pot and cook the two together until the timer runs down. While the pasta and asparagus are cooking, heat a little olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat, then add the chicken slices and cook until golden brown on both sides and cooked through. Season as needed. When the pasta and asparagus are done, drain and return to the pot, then toss the mixture with the finished goat cheese sauce. Add in the chicken, and toss to combine. Serve with a sprinkling of fresh basil or chives if desired.

This dish is light, fresh, and flavorful—perfect for a warm day or a quick weeknight meal. Lemon and goat cheese are a match made in heaven, and the addition of herbs and white wine help accentuate the flavors. Tender chicken and crisp asparagus add texture and flavor to the dish and help round it out.

Recipe: Lobster Ravioli in a Vodka Cream Sauce

I got the chance to spend this past week with Sara, my best friend from college—she found a reasonably-priced flight and flew up to my home in Pennsylvania for a visit. We spent time in Pittsburgh, visiting museums and eating some fantastic meals, and we also spent time at home, watching movies (including a guilty pleasure, You've Got Mail with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks) and even doing a little cooking. I showed her some basics, like mincing garlic and cutting basil in chiffonade, and hopefully didn't drive her nuts by hovering over her while she performed said basics. One thing she said she really wanted to try was making homemade pasta with my pasta rolling machine, so I got the bright idea to make ravioli, because that's the one attachment (for raviolini, actually) on the pasta machine that I hadn't tried out yet. That idea turned into Lobster Ravioli in a Vodka Cream Sauce (with a little inspiration from here and here) that took at least three hours to make and resulted in some not-so-attractive but oh-so-tasty raviolini (basically, miniature ravioli). Now, if you want to go the easy route, buy pre-made lobster ravioli and skip ahead to the vodka cream sauce part of the recipe. If you want to go for the glory and make the ravioli by hand, I recommend looking up methods for cutting them by hand, because I've tried that way before and I'm betting it's a lot faster and less messy than the machine (though, keep in mind, this was our first time using this attachment, so it was bound to take a little longer than if I'd tried to do it before).

By the time we finally finished cooking, I was too hungry to go find my "plating" plate, so the "Poppies in Blue" will have to do

Serves: 4-6 (depends on the size and amount of ravioli/raviolini)
Prep. time: 10 minutes for the sauce; anywhere from 1-3 hours to make the ravioli (dough comes together in 10 minutes, and 30 minutes to rest, then the ravioli will take at least an hour to roll out and form)
Cooking time: 15-20 minutes for the sauce; 5 minutes for each batch of ravioli
Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients
For the sauce

• Extra virgin olive oil, enough to lightly coat the bottom of a pan
• Approx. 1 tbsp. butter
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-2 shallots, minced
• 1 cup vodka (you don't need to use the good stuff, since you're cooking it)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 can crushed tomatoes (28-32 oz.)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• Fresh basil, chiffonade cut, to taste
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• Italian seasoning, to taste

For the ravioli

• 1/2 stick (2 oz.) unsalted butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp. shallots, minced
• Approx. 16 oz. pre-cooked lobster meat (I used frozen, pre-cooked langostino lobster)
• 4 oz. cooked crab meat (I used the crab meat you can find on the same shelf as canned tuna)
• 2 oz. Cognac 
• 1/2-1 cup ricotta cheese
• 1 tbsp. chives, chopped
• 2 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Pasta dough, double batch, rested for 30 minutes (see recipe here; double the recipe)

Directions
Heat the butter for the ravioli in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook for a few minutes, until fragrant. Add the lobster, crab meat, and chives and cook for a few minutes, then add the Cognac and cook until it's been reduced by about 1/2 to 3/4 (you only want a little liquid in the pan). Pour the mixture into a food processor and pulse to chop the mixture (only pulse a few times—you just want to break up the pieces of lobster, but you don't want to turn the mixture into a puree). Pour the mixture back into the bowl and set aside to cool. Once cool, add in the desired amount of ricotta and season with salt and pepper. Now, the tricky part...if you're using a pasta machine with a ravioli attachment, follow the instructions for use (it'll likely involve threading dough into the attachment, adding filling, rolling out sheets of ravioli, then pulling apart the ravioli sheets into squares). If you're cutting them by hand, look up instructions (they'll likely say to lay out rolled-out dough on a flat surface, place a dollop of filling a few inches apart in straight lines down the dough, then lay a sheet of dough on top, press around each filling mound, and cut into ravioli shapes). Either way, you will need to make sure you have large, rolled out pieces of dough before you start forming and cutting. (I apologize for not offering more information, but I was using a machine and followed its instructions to make my ravioli). Once the ravioli are formed and cut, spread them out on a lightly floured baking sheet and cover with a clean towel to keep them from getting dried out.
In a large, deep pan, heat the olive oil and butter for the vodka sauce over medium heat. Add in garlic and shallots and cook for a few minutes, until lightly fragrant. Add the vodka and cook until it's been reduced by half, then add the chicken stock and tomatoes. Turn up the heat and cook until it just starts to boil, then reduce heat to low. Slowly whisk in the heavy cream, and continue to keep the sauce warm.
Bring salted water to a boil in a large pot. Cook the ravioli in batches, for 5 minutes each. Rather than drain the pot, refill, and wait for it to boil all over again, just pull the ravioli out with a slotted spoon and continue to use the same batch of boiling water. Transfer the cooked ravioli from the spoon into the sauce. Once all of the ravioli is cooked and added to the sauce, it's finished. Serve with grated Italian cheese and a sprinkling of fresh basil.

Despite being labor-intensive (if you make the ravioli from scratch), this really is a delicious and surprisingly light dish. The ravioli are flavorful little pouches of meaty lobster and creamy ricotta and the vodka sauce, with the fresh taste of tomatoes and just a hint of the vodka, is the perfect choice for the pasta.

Recipe: Sour Cream Garlic Sauce with Chives

This creamy sauce, made with a little chicken broth, sour cream, garlic, chives, and a handful of other ingredients, is meant to go with the potato and cheese pierogi with kielbasa, but it could easily be served over potatoes, as a pasta sauce, or as a dip for chicken. It's really easy to pull together and it's incredibly flavorful.

Yields: About 2 cups
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp. flour
• 1 and 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. white pepper
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/3 cup chives, fresh or dried

Directions
Heat the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring occasionally and watching to make sure it doesn't brown. When fragrant and slightly soft, add the flour and continue to stir until it is well-incorporated into the butter and the mixture is golden yellow and no longer has a floury taste. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth, whisking the mixture until it is well-blended, creamy, and slightly thick. Add the salt and pepper, then whisk in the sour cream until well-blended. Add in the chives, then serve.

This sauce is salty, buttery, and creamy, and almost has a slight bacon taste to it (not sure why though, but it's good!). It was absolutely perfect on the pierogi and kielbasa and it could easily be used as a sort of alfredo sauce alternative on pasta or as a creamy gravy for potatoes or rice.

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.