Herb and Meat Sauce

Refreshing. That would be how I can describe this recipe. It was one of the dishes I prepared for Media Noche.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1/2 kg bacon, sliced into small pieces
Leftover Nacho Beef
Onion, chopped
Garlic, minced
Fresh tomatoes, chopped. Use as many or less as you want
Fresh basil, roughly chopped
Fresh sage
Fresh oregano, roughly chopped
Fresh spinach (you can also use young alugbati leaves)
2 cups broth - chicken or beef
salt and pepper

Procedure
1. Heat olive oil and saute onions and garlic
2. Add bacon and saute for 5 minutes
3. Add leftover nacho beef
4. Add tomatoes, cook for 3 minutes
5. Add all herbs except the spinach, stir and make sure the herbs are incorporated with the meat
6. Add broth and simmer for 3 minutes
7. Season with salt and pepper
8. Add spinach and turn of the heat.

Top sauce to pasta of your choice. Serve immediately.

The sauce will not look like your usually creamy or heavy pasta sauce but very tasty and full of character.

Enjoy!

Pasta with Chicken in Tarragon Cream and Alugbati

Tarragon is so easy to grow. With so much in the garden, I am forced to harvest so often and of course use them. One Saturday afternoon of September (yes, that’s two months ago already and I’m just posting it now!), I just had to be more creative with tarragon.
After an hour of surfing the net, I learned that tarragon is mostly used in cream-based chicken recipes. So, I came up with my own. Here it is.

Ingredients

Pasta, cooked according to package directions – I only had spaghetti then. Most of the recipes I encountered made use of flat noodles such as fettuccini and tagliatelle.

Chicken, cut into small pieces – breast is the more popular part, I guess because you don’t have to be bothered with the bones. I had in my freezer chicken intended for Tinola. I used around 1/3 of a chicken here. I marinated the chicken with salt and pepper.

½ cup fresh tarragon leaves – chopped

1 pack/can heavy cream

1 cup Alugbati – there were around three similar recipes I encountered that used spinach. I have spinach in the garden but not enough for the recipe. So I harvested some Alugbati instead. Alugbati, for those who do not know, is a wild/native green leafy vegetable which my mom introduced to me as the Pinoy spinach.

Roasted garlic – I roasted a few heads of garlic the previous day for a pesto recipe. I used one whole head for this recipe. Although, minced fresh garlic will work just fine.

Olive oil and butter for sautéing

Water or chicken broth or pasta water

Salt and pepper, to taste

Procedure

1. Put olive oil and butter in a heated pan

2. Sauté (roasted) garlic

3. Sauté marinated chicken until cooked.

4. Put water, to deglaze the pan. Water should be enough to cover the chicken. Simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Add cream, tarragon and alugbati

6. Season with salt and pepper

7. Simmer for 10 minutes in low fire

8. If you find the sauce too thick, add more water or chicken broth. You can also use the water where the pasta was cooked.

9. Add cooked pasta and serve hot

Basil Overload

I’m going crazy over basil! I can’t stop experimenting with it. Aside from the chicken curry recipe previously posted, I've come up with two new ones.

Hope you'll like them!

Ham, Cheese with Basil Omelet

Pasta in Tuna and Basil in Cream

Pasta in Tuna and Basil in Cream

For this recipe, I used my leftover (uncooked) pasta. I had some fettuccine and twist. Any pasta will do. Just cook it following the instructions printed on the packaging. I don’t wash my cooked pasta over cold or tap water. I just drain. Once my sauce is cooked, I set aside some sauce for topping and then throw in the pasta on the hot sauce for even distribution/coating.





For the sauce it’s important to prep the ingredients first. Cooking time is approximately 10 minutes.

Sauce Ingredients

2 onions, chopped
½ head of garlic, chopped
1 can tuna in vegetable oil, drain oil and set aside
1 can of button mushrooms, drain water and set aside
Bunch of fresh basil, chopped
1 can all purpose cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure
1. Cook pasta and set aside – drain but don’t wash cooked pasta with cold water. I do that only when I use the pasta for salad.
2. Heat pan and put oil from canned tuna
3. Sauté onions. Once translucent, add the garlic
4. Add tuna
5. Add salt and pepper to taste
6. Add basil
7. Add mushroom water and cream
8. Simmer for 3-5 minutes
9. Put noodles in sauce
10. Serve hot


My eldest son, Renmund, volunteered to be my "model." He wanted to have his picture taken while enjoying the dish. He loves pasta. He says his favorite are Italian dishes. For him all pasta dishes are Italian.

I had some leftover sauce. I used it the next day as filling for omelet. It turned out ok. Sorry, no pictures this time.