Make-Fast Mondays: Pesto Chicken Polenta Bowls with Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

Nothing beats the taste of fresh, homemade pesto, but that doesn’t mean you can’t keep a store-bought jar or two stashed in the cabinet for those times when you want pesto in a pinch. Crack open a jar of your favorite store-bought variety and give this recipe a try. Wondering what to do with the rest of the jar? Find just a few ideas for what you can do with the leftover green goodness here.

Pesto Chicken Polenta Bowls with Artichoke Hearts and Spinach 
1 quart chicken broth
1 cup polenta
2 bay leaves
¼ cup grated Parmesan, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into chunks
8 ounces sliced mushrooms
14 ounce can artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
3-4 tablespoons pesto
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
8 ounces chopped spinach

Bring broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Gradually add polenta and bay leaves, stirring for a minute, before reducing heat to low and covering the saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring the polenta for a minute every 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat, remove bay leaves, and stir in the grated Parmesan. 

Once polenta is simmering, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until chicken is completely cooked. Transfer chicken to a plate and set aside.

Heat remaining olive oil and add mushrooms to the pan, cooking until mushrooms are slightly softened. Add the chicken, artichoke hearts, pesto and red pepper flakes to the pan, stirring once or twice, until everything’s nice and warm. Add spinach and continue to cook for just a minute longer, until spinach wilts but is still a vibrant green, and everything’s got an even coating of pesto sauce. Divide polenta evenly among 6 bowls, followed by the pesto chicken mixture. Garnish with Parmesan and enjoy!

Make-Fast Mondays: Focaccia Veggie Pizzas

Not sure about you, but little Loryll was a biiiiig fan of french-bread pizzas. This is my grown-up attempt take on this special, easy treat. I’ve balanced out the food groups just a little bit more -- less pepperoni and bread, with more veggies and still plenty of delicious cheese. 

Focaccia Veggie Pizzas 
1 16-ounce focaccia loaf
1 cup prepared pesto
1 ½ cups marinara sauce
2 large sliced Roma tomatoes
1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced (I ended up with 10-12)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Slice the focaccia horizontally so you’ve got two thin, flat pieces to work with. Place each focaccia slice on a baking sheet. Spread pesto sauce on one piece of the focaccia and top with half the mozzarella slices and all of the tomatoes. Evenly cover the other slice of focaccia with marinara sauce, remaining mozzarella and red bell peppers. Bake the pizzas for 10 minutes before removing them from the oven, slicing and serving.

Keeping cans of cannellini beans close

I try not to play favorites, but when it comes to beans, I absolutely love cooking with cannellinis. These white kidney beans are just so versatile. Give any or all of these three quick, no-cook cannellini recipes a try and you’ll see what I mean.

Cannellini Bean Salad 
2 15-ounce cans cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups roasted red bell peppers
2 cloves garlic juice of half a lemon
Chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

Put peppers, garlic and lemon juice in a blender and process until smooth. Stir dressing in with beans in a bowl and top with parsley.

Pesto White Bean Dip
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
¼ cup pesto
Juice of half a lemon
Possible dippers: Pita chips

Everything goes into the blender for a quick spin, until smooth.

Red Pepper White Bean Dip 
1 15-ounce can cannellini beans
1 cup roasted red bell pepper
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Possible dippers: Carrot and celery sticks

All ingredients go into the blender. Purée, adding a little more balsamic if you’d like to thin the dip a bit.

A different-yet-delicious take on lasagna

While grocery shopping the other night I passed by some rotisserie chickens that smelled particularly good. Before I knew it, I had tossed one in my shopping cart and started formulating a plan to make the following dish using meat from the ready-to-eat bird. Pesto makes everything taste better, including the jars of alfredo sauce that also ended up in my cart. The pesto and alfredo tasted so good together that I found myself sampling the sauce a few times (quality control, right?) while assembling what turned out to be quite a winner of a midweek meal.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Lasagna
2 15-ounce jars alfredo sauce
 ½ cup prepared pesto
 12 oz. bag frozen artichokes, thawed
3 cups cooked chicken meat, diced
9 lasagna noodles
1 bunch spinach, rinsed and chopped
8 oz. cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 cup grated mozzarella (optional)

 Heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring large pot of water to a boil. Cook lasagna noodles in boiling water for 8-10 minutes, drain and rinse with cold water. Whisk alfredo and pesto together in a bowl. Pour ¼ cup sauce into 9-inch-by-13-inch baking dish. begin layering remaining ingredients, starting with three lasagna noodles and continuing with chicken, spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and sauce. Ingredients should be enough for two layers, topped with three final noodles and sauce. I noted that cheese is optional with this recipe because I think the lasagna has plenty going for it already without the cheese. If you want cheese, sprinkle it on top of the lasagna before covering the dish loosely with aluminum foil. Cheese or no cheese, you’re going to want to bake the lasagna for 30-40 minutes. Remove the lasagna from the oven and allow it to sit for a few minutes before serving.

Blarney Burger makes any day St. Patrick's Day

I was too busy sipping on some delicious Guinness to cook on St. Patrick’s Day.

I still wanted to make something festive, but I can’t stand corned beef. Thus, the idea of the Blarney Burger was born. I can’t say it’s traditional, but it sure is tasty. I made these holiday-inspired burgers with grilled turkey patties, Kerrygold Reserve Cheddar and sautéed mushrooms, all stacked on top of toasted potato buns smeared with store-bought basil pesto.

Enjoy it on St. Patrick’s Day or any of the other 364 days of the year you feel like celebrating with a wee bit of green.

Valentine's Day, One More Taste style

For the past couple years Chris and I have avoided going out for Valentine’s Day, opting instead to stay home and prepare a stellar meal for a fraction of the price. For example, last year's dinner featured some awesome steaks, scalloped potatoes with truffle cheese and spicy asparagus.

This year I wanted to go out on a limb a little and work with lamb. My experience cooking lamb to this point had been limited to grilling up some burgers. I still dream of the delicious leg of lamb I had for my birthday this year at Barndiva in Healdsburg, and used that amazing meal as inspiration for our Valentine’s feast.

I pulled out all my cookbooks, spread them around me and got to work. After reading about the different cuts and cooking methods I honed in on roast leg of lamb. Alice Waters’ “In the Green Kitchen” and Jamie Oliver’s “The Naked Chef” were great resources.

The meat department at Corti Bros. had whole, bone-in legs that weighed over seven pounds, which would have been a bit much for the two of us. The butcher removed the bone and gave me the top half of the leg, which ended up weighing a little over three pounds. Perfect.

I brought in two enormous sprigs of rosemary from the backyard and sliced up three large garlic cloves. All the garlic cloves went in the inside of the leg, along with about half of the rosemary, before I tied the leg up into a nice, tight bundle using kitchen string. I seasoned the outside of the leg with plenty of salt and pepper and set it atop the rest of the rosemary sprigs in a large roasting pan. I roasted the lamb in the oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes before flipping the lamb, roasting an additional 30 minutes, and then flipping it over again for another 20 minutes or so. Once the lamb’s internal temperature was 128 degrees, I removed it from the oven and let it sit for another 15 minutes before carving. What I ended up with was a medium-rare marvel that tasted great on its own, but even better with some mint pesto.

Mint Pesto
Adapted from Bon Appetit
1 cup fresh mint leaves
½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, peeled
1/3 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients but oil in blender or food processor to course puree. With machine still running, gradually pour in olive oil. And puree until almost smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Sautéed chard (tossed into a frying pan with a little bit of soy sauce and red pepper flakes) and a white bean gratin rounded out the meal. I know there are some shortcuts I could have taken with the beans, but my experience with dry beans is minimal so I wanted to start this dish from the very beginning.

While I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen, it was well worth it to enjoy a delicious meal with my sweets.

White Bean and Tomato Gratin
1 ½ pounds dried Great Northern beans, rinsed
10 cups water
1 yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
2 tablespoons dried thyme
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs made from old French bread
1 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste

Rinse beans and place in a large bowl or pot. Fill pot with enough water to cover beans with 1-2 inches water. Soak overnight, and then drain.

Combine beans, 10 cups water, onion, garlic and salt in large pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until beans are tender, about 90 minutes. Drain.

Transfer beans to a 13-9-2-inch glass baking dish. Add canned tomatoes and thyme and stir together gently to blend. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Mix breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a bowl and sprinkle over beans. Bake at 350 degrees roughly one hour, until topping is a golden brown and mixture is bubbly.

Pesto pasta a great post-work dinner

Work nights are a mixed bag.

It doesn’t necessarily depend on how my day went, but by the time I get home from work and plop my commuter mug in the kitchen sink, I’m either really excited to cook dinner or I’m shrinking away from the stove.

Tonight I ended up settling somewhere in the middle. With no errands to run and a kitchen full of odds and ends, I wasn’t necessarily pressed for time, and decided to whip something up that wouldn’t have me on my feet until bedtime. Don’t want some elaborate recipe to get between me and How I Met Your Mother!

The end result was Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Parmesan, a dish that took only six ingredients and about 30 minutes from start to finish. I had all the ingredients at home — frozen shrimp (defrost these guys for a few minutes under cool running water), a jar of pesto and chicken broth (I use chicken bouillon in a pinch) are all kitchen staples for me.

Pesto Pasta with Shrimp and Parmesan
12-16 ounces cooked tail-off medium shrimp, defrosted
1 pound angel hair pasta
1/4 cup prepared pesto
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Bring water to boil in medium pot and add pasta. Stir occasionally and cook until pasta is al dente (firm, not too mushy), about 8 minutes. Strain pasta.
While pasta is cooking, rinse shrimp with water and toss them in a large nonstick frying pan with the broth, pesto and pepper flakes. Stir over medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until shrimp are thoroughly heated.
Add cooked pasta to the pan with shrimp and sauce, tossing with the Parmesan until noodles are coated, and serve.