On Saturday, I embraced my hippie within (nouveau hippie, that is) and skipped out on my Saturday morning job (screw that $20/hour -- I'm no capitalist pig) (but no really it was because the scanner wasn't working -- if there's one thing I hate, it's wrestling with malfunctioning and jammed office equipment) and I traipsed around town going to all the places I like to go but never take the time to visit all in the same day. Places where everyone's wearing Danskos and they look like they just came from yoga class.
The library (see cookbooks above).
The health food store.
Thrift stores galore.
I found a pitcher that looks like someone made it in pottery class (love the color) and a mint condition Pyrex mixing bowl.
Michaels AND JoAnn's.
And we had dinner of chicken bruschetta and garlic knots at Nino's in record time. Seriously, the waitress came back to check on us and Angie said the woman's eyes bulged a little when she saw our emptied plates. She recovered her look of disinterest quickly though and brought our bill. Nobody can eat as fast as we can eat when we put our minds to it.
And the reason I had all that time to wile away was because I was just killing time till the main event because THEN I went and stood in the rain in the Moose's Tooth parking lot to drink beer (in the rain) watch Wilco play their hearts out (in the rain) (well, actually they were under a tent but they were impressed we stuck around [in the rain] and they called us 'hardy.'). It was dreamy and I've never seen so many raincoats and xtra-tuffs collected in one place in my life.
Here's a recipe I plucked from one of my library books, Jamie's Italy. As soon as I saw this recipe for spaghetti, mushroom, and chicken tetrazzini, I knew we would be friends.
Such simple ingredients and what I really liked was that there was very little chopping and mincing involved. Usually there's three or four ingredients like vegetables and herbs to take a knife to but here, there's just the garlic and I threw that in my mini-prep (I hate to mince garlic -- what a snoozefest).
And okay, I had to grate some cheese and tear some mushrooms. And it involved three different methods of cooking -- boiling, sauteing, and baking -- so prepare to dirty some pots and pans. Totally worth it. The results were wonderful with that earthy, musky taste that mushrooms are so good at.
More on that zucchini later (hint: I grew it myself!)
Instead of using the dried porcini and mixed fresh mushrooms Jamie calls for in his recipe, I used all fresh shiitakes just because that's what looked good in the store.
Spaghetti Tetrazzini
1 oz./a small handful of dried porcini mushrooms
• olive oil
• 4 chicken thighs, boned, skinned, and cut into bite-sized pieces
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 2 handfuls of mixed fresh mushrooms, cleaned and torn
• 1 cup white wine
• 1 lb. dried spaghetti
• 2 1/4 cups heavy cream
• 7 oz. Parmesan cheese, grated
• a sprig of fresh basil, leaves picked
• extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Put your porcini mushrooms in a bowl and pour just enough boiling water over to cover them (approx. 2/3 cup). Put to one side to soak for a few minutes. Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all the ingredients, and pour in a splash of olive oil. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and brown them gently in the oil. Strain the porcini, reserving the soaking water, and add them to the pan with the garlic and fresh mushrooms. Add the wine, with the strained porcini soaking water, and turn the heat down. Simmer gently until the chicken pieces are cooked through and the wine has reduced a little.
Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water according to the package instructions and drain well. Add the cream to the pan of chicken, then bring to a boil and turn the heat off. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the drained spaghetti to the creamy chicken sauce and toss well. Add three-quarters of the Parmesan and all of the basil and stir well. Transfer to an ovenproof baking dish or nonstick pan, sprinkle with half the remaining cheese, and bake in the oven until golden brown, bubbling, and crisp. Divide between your plates, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle with the rest of the cheese before serving.
That is my kind of dish. Pasta surrounded by delicious ingredients - I'm in for some, Molly!
Posted by: Patricia Scarpin | August 01, 2008 at 09:17 AM