Today in the NY Times Dining & Wine section there was a very funny article. The article's author had a clever idea for making a Top Chef spin-off called, Top Chef: Home Cooks. The idea for the show is that it would feature ordinary people, in their ordinary kitchens, trying to squeeze in a healthful dinner among all of the other demands of their lives. Some of the challenges the author proposed for Top Chef: Home Cooks were: Sunday pancakes for 8 with only three eggs, or boneless, skinless chicken - 5 ways. Part of what made this article so funny was it's underlying truth, these challenges are ones that we all face each day.
Many of my recipes try to address the challenge of feeding ourselves when we aren't professional cooks and don't have 4 hours in which to prepare a meal; and none more so that tonight's dinner. Tonight, after a looong day at work, Mike and I had a zillion errands to do and didn't even starting thinking about food until it was pretty late for dinner. Ordering out for a pizza is always an option, but I wanted to make use of some things in the fridge that wouldn't last too much longer. Part of what made this recipe such a quickie was that I had done a fair amount of the prep-work ahead of time. The nice thing about doing the work before hand is that you can arrange the tasks to fit into your schedule. For example, last summer when the basil was going crazy I made tons of pesto and froze it so that all I needed to make a sauce for the pasta was defrost the pesto in the microwave. I'd also frozen the peas last year in an attempt to make the local vegetable season last longer and we used the Hubs's grilled chicken that was waiting in the fridge.
Because I know you are wondering, I'm going to start with a quick discussion of how to make the pesto. There are lots of formal pesto recipes out there and they generally recommend that if you are going to freeze your pesto you freeze it in a glass jar with a layer of olive oil on the top. That is the general recommendation, but I didn't want to take up the freezer space with the glass jars and I didn't want to use that much olive oil in the pesto. So I came up with this version that uses less olive oil and freezer bags.
2 - 3 large bunches of basil
2 - 3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp pine nuts
1 handful grated Parmesan
1/2 tsp salt
olive oil
Coarsely tear the basil and put it into the bowl of a food processor. Roughly chop the garlic, toss in the pine nuts, salt and Parmesan. The various ingredient amounts can be adjusted according to taste (and availability), you can also mix everything together, stop and taste, and add more as needed. Turn on the food processor and slowly pour the olive oil into the processor's feed tube, stopping just after a paste forms. Divide the pesto evenly (I did 1 cup servings) and put it into small freezer bags, being careful to squeeze all of the air out of the bag. Then lay flat to freeze. I imagine this pesto would last at least a year in the freezer, but it hasn't ever lasted in my freezer that long, so I can't confirm.
Makes about 3 cups
1/2 large bunch asparagus, cut into 2" pieces
2 cups frozen peas
4 cups pulled chicken breast
10 ounces whole wheat pasta
2 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
Salt & pepper to taste
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. While the water is coming up to a boil, start shredding the chicken. When the water is boiling add the pasta and hang the asparagus above the pasta in a steamer basket. Once the pasta and the asparagus have been cooking for about 5 minutes add the peas to the asparagus in the steamer. Then put the pesto in the microwave to defrost. After the pasta is cooked (the asparagus may cook more quickly than the pasta, depending on the thickness of the stalks, so keep an eye on the vegetables and pull them if necessary). Drain the pasta and put it back in the pot, adding the vegetables, the shredded chicken, the pesto and the vinegar (the acidity is an important balance to this dish). I served this with some shreds of our Vermont cheese on top just to add a little richness to the dish, but it's entirely optional. If for some reason you don't have Vermont sheep's cheese, Parmesan, goat cheese or manchego would all be good substitutes. If you wanted to make this dish vegetarian, toast about 1/2 - 3/4 cup roughly chopped pecans in a dry pan until they smell warm (watch the nuts closely, they will burn) or substitute a can of cannellini beans for the chicken. Bon Appetit!
Makes 4 servings
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