The food situation is so good right now, solidly in the middle season in terms of the garden. Last week there was the first great stir fry with broccoli, snow peas, onion, radishes and swiss chard that showed the complexity of the current crops.
Tonight, though, I had that great experience of looking at a recipe and finding that one after another, ingredients that weren’t available even last week are at my fingertips. I remember when my friends Mary Beth and Peter first introduced me to gorgonzola/blue cheese tossed with broccoli and fettucine. It was their go-to one-pot dish and always delicious.
I didn’t have a lot of gorgonzola, but what I did have was locally made, smooth and creamy. I went looking for a gorgonzola sauce on epicurious.com and found a great one that also made use of garden herbs. I added the broccoli as well as some leftover chicken breast (from a chicken roasted Sunday that I got from Jim DiGiovanni’s Dancing Bears Farm, one of the great local food producers, like Forest Mushrooms, on Hwy 51).
The basil is starting to take off, which is a great plus. Thyme and garlic also came from the garden. The most expensive part of the meal was the cheese, at $4 for just under a half pound. I figure the whole meal was under $7, and there’s plenty of leftovers. We had a green salad on the side: lettuce, radishes and garlic scape dressing. I didn’t make the pasta from scratch, but that would have been better. Still, for a Tuesday night, this was not too shabby! Here it is, with my adaptations/substitutions:
Broccoli Gorgonzola Fettuccine
12 oz Fettuccine
1 large head of broccoli, stem and florets chopped
leftover chicken breast or rotisserie chicken (optional)
2 Tbs butter
1 Tbs olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
3/4 cup milk, half/half or cream
1/2 to 3/4 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese or other blue cheese
3/4 cup walnut pieces, toasted
1 cup fresh basil cut into ribbons
salt and pepper to taste
Cook pasta in a medium pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 1 cup cooking liquid.
Steam broccoli until crisp tender. Place in ice water to stop cooking then move to a large bowl. Toast the walnut pieces and add to broccoli.
Melt butter with oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and thyme; sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add pasta, cream/milk, and cheese. Toss until sauce coats pasta, adding reserved cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls if dry. Mix in walnuts and broccoli and heat through. Add basil. Season pasta to taste with salt and pepper.
Serve in a bowl topped with shredded chicken.
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