Experiments in Pasta #4: Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce with Lemon-Dill Fettucini
Here goes another pasta experiment. This time, I went with 100% durum wheat (other than a little KA that I used to flour the board and the pasta as it went through the machine). To make the dough, I combined 3 egg yolks (yolks only, trying for a very yellow noodle), the zest of 6 lemons, 1T each dill and basil, and 1.5t kosher salt in a blender, then mixed it into two cups of fresh-ground durum wheat (no sifting, 100% WW).
The dough sat for around four hours, then half was cut into fettucini. The other half is sitting in my fridge, and will be used tomorrow probably...
For the final dish, roast 2/3 cup of pine nuts and reserve. The chicken breasts had been coated in olive oil and kosher salt that morning, then stuck in the fridge in a plastic bag that I flipped every couple of hours during the day. Rough chop 2 small onions, 8 oz mushrooms, and 5 cloves of garlic. I browned the chicken in a mix of butter and olive oil, then dumped the onion mixture on top and hit with some kosher salt. After most of the water cooked out of the veg mix, I added chicken stock to a 1/4" depth in the pan, put in a bunch of lemon slices, covered and simmered for 15-20 minutes. The pasta cooked for 4 minutes. I added a few tablespoons of half and half to the pan, combined for a minute, then added the noodles and cooked for another 90 seconds or so. Yum. The noodles weren't quite the bright yellow I was hoping for, maybe I'll add a few drops of food coloring next time :)
Comments
They seem to be so expensive in the little packets you get at the grocery store. I love the lemon idea. Maybe I will try by marinating the chicken in the olive oil and lemon juice since I always have concentrate on hand. When I buy fresh lemons, I forget what I wanted them for and then they lay around and shrivel up before i remember the recipe ;)
Thanks much!
Anna
I get my grocery store's 'generic' packages of nuts. They are a little cheaper than name brand, but nuts are overall pretty expensive. Pecans aren't too bad around here (lots of pecan groves not to far away), but everything else is pretty steep.
I don't think I have ever even tasted a pine nut, I should buy a bag just to see if the taste is so different, I see them included in a lot of nicer recipes.