Angel hair pasta with pea pesto and leftover turkey

Right before Christmas I found out that my university hands out turkeys to all their employees, so I have the freezer full of frozen cooked turkey. It’s turning out to be very convenient. New Year’s Day is probably the laziest day of the year for me, and since I hadn’t done anything by last night, I decided to come up with a quick and easy dinner recipe. It turned out absolutely delicious, and the best part is that it can be done in 15-20 minutes, depending on how quickly your stove boils pasta water! All you need is a blender / immersion blender / food processor and some leftover cooked protein. This is turning into a new working day favourite for me.

Ingredients (2 servings)

• 2 servings angel hair spaghetti
• 3/4 cup of deep-frozen peas
• 1/4 cup of white wine (or chicken stock, if you don’t have wine)
• 1 small peeled clove of garlic
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 egg yolk
• 3/4 cup shredded cooked turkey (or other cooked protein of your choice)

Start the pasta water. Dump all the ingredients except for the pasta and the turkey in a blender. Pulse for 30 seconds or until smooth. Boil the pasta according to the instructions on the package. Drain the pasta and pour the pesto over it. Add the turkey and place the pan over medium heat for a couple of minutes, until everything is warm. Serve with sharp cheddar cheese.

Pasta with Peaches and Chicken

I finally moved in to my new apartment here a few days ago. The kitchen is amazing, so the first night I was here, I cooked a proper meal. I found some very nice peaches earlier that day, so I knew I wanted to incorporate those, and I wanted something a little bit spicy. This is what I came up with:

Ingredients:

• 4 portions of rigatoni (or any other pasta you prefer)
• 4 chicken thighs
• 2 large peaches
• 2 tomatoes
• 1tsp sriracha sauce
• 1tsp honey
• Chicken bouillon (corresponding to one cube)
• Basil
• Oregano
• Salt
• Pepper

Start by roughly chopping the peaches and the tomatoes. Put these in a small pan with a few tablespoons of water over medium heat. Let them simmer while you prepare the rest of the meal. Start the pasta water. Rub the chicken thighs with a few drops of sriracha and the basil and herbs. Start heating up a frying pan over medium heat with some cooking spray or butter, depending or what you prefer. While it’s heating up, add some spices to the tomatoes and peaches: about 5 drops of sriracha, or to taste, a teaspoon each of basil and oregano and the chicken bouillon. When the frying pan is hot, place the chicken thighs in it and let them fry for about 3-5 minutes or until they have a nice colour. Flip them over, and drizzle a little bit of honey on each thigh, turn the heat down to low and let them finish cooking (roughly 10 minutes). Now would be the time to add the pasta to the boiling water, and if it’s not boiling, take a break and come back when it is. Pour the sauce into a blender and mix until smooth. Pour back into the pan and salt and pepper it to taste. Drain the pasta when it’s cooked. Mix in roughly a third of the sauce, place pasta on plates, top with a chicken thigh and some more sauce. Enjoy!

 

This sauce is one of my new favourite foods. I would recommend doing a big batch, because it will just disappear. If there are an leftovers, I fond that it’s delicious cold as a pasta salad with some added spinach leaves and the chicken diced.