guys, i’m so excited about soon being unemployed, and i gave my kids a lot less work than usual this marking period so i have nothing but free time, so D and i have been cooking like crazy people. if you didn’t read the description of this photo on flickr, i mentioned that we bought this cooking magazine at the checkout in the grocery store, which unbeknownst to us was like $10! but it’s been TOTALLY worth it – it has an amazing wealth of really tasty and EASY recipes (WITH the calorie counts for each), and the ingredients are things that you can find at normal grocery stores.
fettuccine with chicken, goat cheese, and spinach.
1 cup of dry white wine (we used crappy grocery store cooking wine – if you do this, omit the salt from the shallot sauce because the wine is salted already)
2 tbsp minced shallots (we used one really big one, but it made the sauce delightfully tangy)
1/4 tsp of freshly ground black pepper
pinch of red chile flakes (we used probably 1/2-1 tsp, and it was PERFECT)
1/2 tsp kosher salt (if your wine isn’t salted)
1/2 lb of dried fettuccine (half a box)
about 1 lb of chicken breast (we used the tenders)
olive oil
4oz of fresh spinach (we used one bag of the pre-washed baby spinach by dole or fresh express)
about 8-10 leaves of fresh basil, chopped
start your pasta water, because dry fettuccine takes forever to cook! (totally forgot about this, and everything else was done while the stupid pasta was STILL cooking.)
salt and pepper your chicken, add a tsp of olive oil to a pan, and cook chicken until golden brown and no longer pink in the middle. remove from heat to a large serving bowl. in the same pan, add the other tsp of olive oil and sautee spinach until just wilted, 2 minutes.
while your chicken and spinach cook, add your minced shallots to a small pot and begin to sweat them (this isn’t in the original recipe, but i think it made them sweeter), then add the cup of wine and 1/2 tsp of pepper. reduce the liquid by half, about 5 minutes. whisk in the goat cheese in batches, then add the red pepper flakes. simmer for another minute or two and whisk till smooth, then set aside.
drain pasta and reserve a cup or so of the water, then add everything to the bowl the chicken is in, and toss to coat evenly with sauce. the recipe recommends perhaps adding the reserved pasta water just in case the sauce gets too thick or “gunky” (as a recipe commenter calls it), but we thought it was perfect as is.
serve with some basil on top, and enjoy. yes it will still be delicious without the basil, but knowing how this tastes WITH the basil, i wouldn’t make it without!
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