Yesterday I stopped at a grocery store in the middle of my four and half mile walk. Why not stand in a 20 minute line even if for just a few items? Ham, Chardonnay, heavy whipping cream, and grated Parmesan for a springtime supper I had in mind. I dug through my refrigerator to gather scrips and scraps. I aimed for nothing to go to waste. Anthony Bourdain once said that mise en place is the religion of all good line cooks, and so in my lineup of ingredients I had: rotisserie breast meat chicken, sugar snap peas, cherry tomatoes halved and quartered, broccoli florets, chopped shallot, chopped Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped chives, grated Parmesan, Gemelli pasta, Chardonnay, and two artichokes a fellow community gardener gave to us a week ago.
My husband was dubious about the artichokes being still good enough to eat. I was going to roast them and didn't care about a few brown spots on leaves that I was probably going to discard. I cut the stems and the prickly tops off and sliced the two artichokes in half. I used a spoon to dig out the fuzzy fibers from the chokes and then rubbed lemon juice on the exposed inside halves.
I had rosemary and garlic to stuff in the inside cavities and drizzled olive oil and seasoned it with salt and pepper.
I then turned the artichokes over with the garlic and herbs nestled inside. I learned from another chef that the less shiny side of aluminum foil is the nonstick side. I wanted to not have to wash my quarter sheet pan, but wanted my artichokes to roast nicely and so I used aluminum foil rather than parchment paper.
Usually I boil artichokes, but I thought roasting was going to render a more delicious cooked vegetable. I also didn't want to have to dirty more dishes and make a garlic lemon butter dipping sauce for the artichokes.
While my artichokes were roasting, I blanched the broccoli and sugar snap peas.
I love my spider strainer, which allows me to boil a pot of water once but use it multiple times to blanch my vegetables and cook my pasta. I threw in about 3 handfuls of pasta into the final boil.
I moved my mise en place next to the stove and the butter dish and the olive oil along with what was left of the heavy whipping cream I bought a couple weeks ago. Despite the expiration date of April 5th, I knew the cream was still good (it was the 16th when I cooked this dish). I suppose I could have used my new nonstick cooking pan so that there is no cheesy residue stuck to the pan rather than on the pasta and vegetables instead of my usual stainless steel pan that was my souvenir from time spent in Germany.
I needed to start my primavera dish at the same time that my artichokes only needed fifteen or so minutes to finish cooking. I peeked in the oven, and the artichokes were a lovely golden brown crispy.
With only twenty or so more minutes to roast because they were small artichokes, I loosely covered them with aluminum foil to finish cooking. It was also time to start cooking the entree. I melted butter and added olive oil in order for the butter to not burn on the medium high heat to cook the chopped shallot. When the shallot had softened, I deglazed the pan with what was in my wine glass, scraping off the fond from the bottom of the pan. Then I added the cream and the tomatoes. I had also finely chopped a clove of garlic with salt and added that to the simmering cream sauce.
Next I added the blanched vegetables and chicken as well as some grated Parmesan to thicken the sauce.
The directions on the box of pasta called for 12 minutes of boiling for an al dente texture, but since I knew my thin cream sauce and the water in my vegetables would water my sauce even more--I had instead boiled the pasta for 10 minutes so that when I put the pasta into the primavera, they would indeed be al dente.
I tossed the pasta and the ingredients to coat them with the cream sauce and then added additional grated Parmesan cheese to further thicken the sauce.
The husband pronounced the dinner good, and success--no leftovers.
Our neighbor's dog, Olivia came over for a turkey treat, and her owner, Cecilia came bearing some of the Korean beef (she substituted dessert wine for mirin--what a great tip)and steamed rice she had cooked for her dinner. Oh my deliciousness. This sticky rice is the comfort dish of my childhood. I kept taking bites of meat and rice even though I had already finished the last of the pasta primavera. And so I do have a delicious leftover from last night.
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