Tuscany – Create You Coaching

Inspiration has struck! Not to say I have not been cooking and all of us eating well but reverting to tried and tested recipes has been the theme this summer. This is one of those; my taste buds need it moments. I love sour, bitter, salty sharp flavors. Then the full round buttery flavour’s of Tuscany, sage, pepper, and brown butter. I gave a rough search for inspiration and one of my favourite chefs recipes popped up, of course, Tieghan from Halfbakedharvest.com

Ingredients:

Left over roast chicken, meat stripped	1 tsp flour
½-1 cup of sage leaves	2 tbsp of unsalted butter ( more if you like)
1 cup chicken stock	Ground black pepper
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice	½-1 tsp mixed herbs
1 shallot finely chopped	Olive oil
2 tbsp of capers	¼ cup of white wine (optional, I didn’t use it)
Roast Butternut and courgette	¼ – ½ cup of grated parmesan cheese
1 tsp lemon zest
500g Pasta, linguine or pappardelle

Method:

I roasted the vegetables earlier in the day for the children’s food, so it was all ready to go. You can swap out what I used for what you have handy or need to use up, but I do think the butternut and courgette really suited the dish. Mushrooms and sweet potato could be delicious too, experiment with what you think can work.

Put 2 tbs of butter in a small/medium saucepan with 1 tbs of olive oil, let it heat up on a medium heat. Get your shallot in there and fry off for 1 minuteor less, then add your sage leaves, once the butter has browned and it is bubbling check your sage, but it should be crispy. Remove the sage and place to one side on some kitchen towel.

Pour in the cup of stock and stir for a minute. I put the flour in a cup with some hot water from the kettle and mixed it to a paste and added it in with the broth, stir well then add your lemon juice and wine (if using it), capers, lemon zest and a few grinds of black pepper, continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Keep an eye on it as you may need to turn your burners lower, so it is simmering not boiling. Get your dried mixed herbs or fresh chopped herbs in the pot. Cook for 3 -5 minutes till a lovely consistency, taste do you need more salt or pepper? Add it if you do.

Now get your pasta on, after if has cooked for half the cooking time grab some of that cooking water ¼ cup will do. I then put it in the roasting tin of my vegetables, to get all that yummy flavour. Take the vegetable out first. Strain your pasta and drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on it and get it back in the pan on the heat add your vegetables and chicken ( I heated ours in the microwave) stir add the cooking liquor and turn up the heat for 1-2 minutes, not drop the heat and add your sauce.

Use your own judgement here of how much you need. I also added half of the sage leaves slightly crumbled now and saved the rest for dressing after. Turn off the heat and add half or all your parmesan cheese stir and serve, top with your crispy sage more black pepper and yum! Enjoy! Let me know how you get on with this one please?

We bought large pasta shells because I insisted that they look luxurious and would be great for a dinner party. They have been in the cupboard since the start of lockdown, their time had come. It is much easier than the images and recipe list would suggest, give it a try it is a nice treat and feels a bit like you went to an restaurant in Siena.

Mince of choice	Rosemary 2 sprigs chopped
1/2 tub of ricotta	Mixed herbs
¼ – ½ Chorizo chopped into small cubes	1 tbs fennel seeds toasted and ground
1 onion chopped	1 tsp ground cumin
500g Pasta (If you don’t have the large use any)	Black olives roughly pulled apart
Sundried tomatoes- not a necessity	Black pepper and salt
3 cubes frozen spinach defrosted or fresh	Chilli flacks
Preparade Tomato sauce	Lemon zest of 1 lemon

The chili flakes here were added to the tomato sauce for the adult portion

Fry your onion in a bit of oil, I added a pinch of salt at this point once translucent add the garlic but drop the heat. I forgot to toast my fennel so move the onion and garlic to the side and did it in the same pan; see in the image below. This happens to me a lot and I am not one to dirty and pan unnecessarily. Add the mince to brown, after about 2 minutes add the herbs; Mixed herbs, fennel, cumin and 1 sprig of rosemary. Add the defrosted spinach and half of the chopped chorizo, fry until the meat is cooked and has a nice colour. You could add more salt at this point, we jsut added a pince once I had removed the childrens portion.

Toast your fennel in the same pan if you forget

Remove from the heat and add the Ricotta and lemon zest stir until it is well incorporated. I added a piece of sundried tomato while assembling but you can just add a handful of chopped pieces now and mix through. Cook the pasta as directed on the packaging, drain and cover with some olive oil. This can be done during the cooking process or after depending on when you want the dish to be ready. I cooked the filling in the afternoon and set it aside to cool and kept it in the fridge until I needed it for the children’s dinner.

Once the pasta has cooled down a little you can start assembling, but first put a layer of your tomato sauce on the bottom of the oven dish. Now start filling and I even think this could be fun for the littles ones if they were a bit older. I put the rest of the chorizo in the bowl with the cooled down mince and just spooned a little with each scoop. Then place them on the sauce in a woven like pattern so you can fit the largest quantity of shells in the dish.

Top the dish with the olives and cheese and top with the chopped Rosemary to finish. What you will get is warm, comforting Tuscan flavours that brings the Mediterranean sun right into your home. We made two dinners and two lunches for us and the sae for the Austin and Aria. This would be great served with a salad if you have anything in the house, but we were a bit low on fresh foods.

Tag: Tuscany

Leftover Roast Chicken Pasta with sage, butter, and caper sauce (Adult only)

Tuscan mince and ricotta filled pasta