Tasso Penne Pasta

So I purchased a new stainless steel cookware set with my 2^nd place fantasy football winnings.  Cookware is by Tramontina, and is sold online through Walmart.  It is Tri-ply and from all the reviews I read very comparable in quality to All-Clad, and costs about 1/3 the price.  They offer two sets, the one I bought has a 12qt stock pot, 5qt dutch oven, 4qt pot, 2qt pot, 10in sauté, 12in sauté and lids for everything but the sauté pans.  The main reason I chose this set is because it included a 12” skillet, and I’ve been wanting me a big ass skillet.

 

Tasso Penne Pasta is not a name I came up with, but rather the name given to a pasta dish on the room service menu at the Marriott River Center where Kristin and I basically lived for 4 months before we got our house.  She probably ordered it 3 times a week and occasionally she has a hankerin for it. It’s a pretty tasty dish and is one of my favorite pastas as well.

Serves 5

Ingredients

Penne (12-15 oz)

2 Chicken breasts

1 cup diced tasso ham (or any smoked ham you can find)

½ large onion- diced

½ red bell pepper- diced

2 cloves garlic

1 can whole or diced green chilis

1 cup white wine

2 cups chicken stock

1 small carton heavy cream

Knob of butter

½ tsp cayenne

½ tsp paprika

1 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 green onions

1 tomato- diced

Parsley

Olive Oil

Salt/pepper

1.    In a 12” stainless steel skillet cook your chicken breasts in the oil, about 6 minutes on each side.  Remove and set aside.  If you don’t have a 12” stainless steel skillet go get you one!

2.     Add diced ham to the skillet and allow to brown, add onion and bell pepper, cook until translucent then add garlic, green chilies, cayenne and paprika.  Cook for a minute more then add the wine and scrape up the goodies. 

3.      After wine has reduced add chicken stock and allow mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes while you cook the penne.

4.     Add the cooked penne, heavy cream, and sliced chicken back to the pan, cook for 5-10 minutes, adding the butter at the end.

5.      Garnish pasta with feta cheese, diced green onion, tomato, and chopped parsley.

6.      Serve with some dank ass garlic bread and enjoy

Orzo with Spinach and poached egg

What's that you say, you're tired of scrambled eggs and bacon? Sausage muffins and home fries are getting old? Well my friend, look no further. This was just something I cooked up on a whim that turned out pretty nice. I like cooking orzo so that it is like a "fake" risotto, but if you had some leftover risotto it would probably work great for this.

Ingredients (Makes 2 servings)

4 oz of Orzo pasta

tbls or so of butter

1/4 cup of shredded sharp cheddar

1/4 cup of grated parmesan

2tbls or so of feta crumbles

couple handfuls of fresh spinach

2 eggs

Green onion and Parsley for garnish.

Salt and pepper

1. Cook up your Orzo and poach your eggs.

2. To the cooked orzo add the butter, parm, cheddar, and spinach and cook for a couple minutes until the spinach is wilted, add a little pasta water if necessary to creamy it up.

3. Dish the orzo out on a plate, stick your poached egg on top, garnish with crumble feta, green onion, and parsley and you've got yourself a great start to the day, 370 calories for those counting those calories.

Vacation Posts

Off to Market!

Post 1

So on Tuesday the wife and I went down to Findlay Market to pick up some goodies. We wound up with some fresh pasta, produce, Linguisa sausage, and some fresh spices. When we got back we cooked up some of the fresh pasta for lunch. Kept things pretty simple: Kristin had spinach fettuccine with some cremini mushrooms, garlic, sun dried tomatoes, spinach and olive oil, which turned out pretty delicious. I had plain fettuccine and made a fresh tomato sauce with some onions, garlic, and tomato, served with the Linguisa on the side. This was the first time I ever had Linguisa, it’s very similar to Italian sausage with just a little hint of smokiness.