I’ve been continuing my culinary exploration this month. A couple weeks ago, I made a skillet chicken parmesan from America’s Test Kitchen. It was bland and tough and not really worth it. What a shame. Last weekend I made a homemade turkey bolognese — which was fantastic! The recipe is at the bottom here. It made a good amount, which allowed me to freeze some of it — I don’t know if it will recover from the freeze as well as I hope it does — I’ll be sure to let you all know.
Tonight I am going to make another recipe from Food and Wine. I’m experimenting with a Pappardelle with Duck Ragu. I couldn’t find any pappardelle, so I’m just using lasanga noodles, split lengthwise. The duck leg confit was more expensive than I expected about $20 for 4 legs. I’m looking forward to trying this new recipe. Mike is a big fan of duck and partnering it with olives sounds pretty damn tasty.
Mike spent the weekend with a friend in Vermont skiing — the high was about 0 degrees and the lows were well below that. I am glad I stayed home. I haven’t gone snowboarding in years (never been skiing) — while it is on my list of things to try again, I’d rather not spend time in -25 degree weather. We are about 6 weeks away from our Southern Africa trip — it seems so surreal. We are also planning a trip to McMinnville for IPNC this summer — I am really excited about this trip. I’ll get to see old friends, spend time in Mac and not have to do any of the crappy family stuff — they won’t even know I am in town. How great is that?
Turkey Bolognese Recipe
Brown 1 Pound of Ground turkey with 1/3 cup of milk (I used Silk)
Dice 1 onion, two carrots and 4 cloves of garlic
Heat 1/4 cup of good olive oil in a large deep sauce pan until shimmering
Carefully put the onion, carrots and garlic in the oil, cook until soft (3-4 minutes)
Pour two 28 ounce cans of GOOD crushed tomatoes into to the sauce pan
Add dried ground oregano and dried ground basil to taste (I used 2 tablespoons basil and 1 tablespoon oregano)
Season to taste with salt and pepper (I love lots of salt and pepper in this)
Add turkey to sauce and cook for 30-40 minutes
I served it with al dente spaghetti with a nice amount of parmesan cheese shredded on top.
I’m hungry just thinking about this.
Enjoy!