Spoils from the Garden Part Deux

The other part of the meal was the Chicken Scallopini. Again, another dish with an ingredient from the garden. This one was easy and very delicious, Cub ate almost 2 medallions all by himself. This is a great dish with Baked Brown Rice, or Pasta.

I took some thin-cut chicken cutlets and pounded them a bit flatter. Put some fresh ground black pepper on the

cutlet. Then I layered a slice of Proscuitto (you could use a nice thin sliced Hickory smoked ham), a few leaves of garden Sage, another layer of the ham, more pepper and the last layer of chicken. I stuck them together with toothpicks and cut them into medallions.

During the layering process I had the frying pan heating over medium heat. Once the medallions are all prepared I put a bit of Olive Oil and a pat of butter in the pan. When the butter is foamy its time for the medallions to get in the pan. Let them get all golden brown on one side, then flip 'em.

Once You remove the medallions you aren't done yet, it's time to make the sauce. I turn the heat up a bit, and add a 1/2 cup of ... whatever wine you are drinking for dinner. 'Cause this whole thing about white wine with fish, and red wine with beef is for the birds. Whatever kind of wine you like, is the kind of wine you should use.

Anyway, back to the sauce. Add the wine, and deglaze the pan, add a pat of butter and some seasonings to taste. Let it reduce for a minute or so and sauce the food.

Voila! Enjoy

Tags:
recipe, cooking, how-to, proscuitto, sage, chicken

Spoils from the garden

Last night we had our first spoils from this years garden.

We had some pesto, made with basil from our prolific bushes and some Chicken Scaloppini with Sage from our lone sage plant.

I love the smell of fresh Pesto .. don't you? To me it fills the dinner plate with that deep rich scent of green. It makes the tummy grumble and ask for "more NOW!". I always cheat and put a bit on some bread as I am finishing up the meal, just to quiet that inner daemon that makes me want to keep it all to myself.

The Pesto was so easy and so fresh that I could probably have just had pasta and pesto if the Scaloppini didn't smell so good.

To make the pesto is easy, everyone knows how to do that right?

FRESH PESTO -

• 2 big handfuls of Basil (ours are Sweet and Genovese)


• 1/2 cup olive oil


• 1/4 teaspoon salt


• Pepper to taste


• 1/4 cup nuts (I use roasted sunflowers this time)

Wash the freshly picked Basil and lightly shake the water off (its ok for them to have a bit of moisture).
Pull out the stems and put them in your compost bucket.
Stuff them in your food processor and pulse until ground.
Add your salt and pepper, begin to pulse again and gently pour in your Olive Oil.
Finally add your nuts and pulse once or twice to break them up (don't grind the nut to a paste)

Voila! Now open the top of your machine. Smells good doesn't it?

Many people add Parmesian or Romano cheese to their pesto, I prefer to add the cheese at the plate.
The pesto mixes better without the cheese and helps coat all the pasta.

When I drain the pasta, I always pour a bit of Olive Oil over the top to help stop sticking. To me, this also helps add a 'base' flavor for the pasta, the oil and the salt. (Salt ... from the water, you do add enough salt right? Add salt to the water, and you won't have to add as much to the final meal.)

Cub loved it so much he had second helpings of the pasta. And even Thumper ate some (one strand at a time).