Home
News
Catering
Recipes
Classes
Articles
Italian Turkey Pasta
Shown on ABC's NH Chronicle Nov 25,2005This is a three for one deal. I wanted one basic recipe that Chronicle viewers could vary according to their family and personal tastes. So I started with a basic white sauce (also known as a béchamel sauce) and added equal quantities to three bowls each containing roughly 2 cups of diced turkey. One was turned into a fancy Turkey and Asparagus Crêpes dish, the second was Turkey Enchiladas with soft flour tortillas The third recipe was an Italian Turkey theme with tri color pasta and Italian style vegetables (see below).
So use these three dishes as inspiration to come up with different fillings according to what your family will eat and what leftovers you have available. They also make great dinner dishes using chicken, pork, ham or salmon or shrimp. The crêpes recipe would be ideal for a Sunday brunch or part of a dinner with friends. All would be good for a potluck since they can be prepared in advance.
Use these sauce ideas to fill giant shells, layer in a lasagna, jazz up real or packet macaroni and cheese, put in a pie plate with pie crust or puff pastry topping and bake, top with hash brown mix and bake, even top a bought pizza crust with sauce and meat mix.
This Turkey Enchilada recipe is based on a friend's recipe that filled flour tortillas with a brick of cream cheese and topped tortillas with a can of condensed chicken soup. Kids love it, if my 19-year-old son is anything to go by.
Ingredients
- ¼ c butter, margarine or oil. (I tend to use olive oil to make my white sauce now, since it is healthier.)
- ¼ c flour
- 1 c whole milk or half and half -you could use 1% for every day but the sauce will not have as much flavor
- 1 c chicken or turkey stock
- salt and pepper
- 2 c leftover cooked diced turkey
- I had a mix of cooked onions, garlic, chopped sun dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper, artichokes and cooked mushrooms with basil, that I had made for a focaccia bread topping. I kept back a cup of this vegetable mix. You could cook one small, peeled, chopped onion in the butter/oil mix for the sauce base, make the sauce and then add some sun dried tomatoes, roasted red pepper (both available in jars) even some eggplant or zucchini. If you have some olives or capers and the family will eat them, add those to your personal taste.
- ½ lb tricolored rotini pasta cooked according to packet directions and drained. I like the color and appearance of this pasta. Otherwise use ziti if that's what your kids are used to.
- 2 c Pizza blend cheese
Method
1. Melt butter or oil in non-stick saucepan. Stir in flour until smooth and cook over gentle heat for about 2 minutes. This cooks the flour and prevents the grainy, raw flour taste.2. Slowly stir in milk and stock, bring to a boil and cook over gentle heat for about 3 minutes until sauce thickens. I also like to add about 2 tbsps of tomato paste to the sauce to enhance color and enrich flavor.
3. Add turkey, vegetables, cooked pasta and 1 cup of Pizza blend cheese. Mix well. Pasta tends to absorb the sauce so you can add some more milk or stock to make mixture runnier. Taste and adjust seasoning.
4. Pour into greased lasagna pan, top with remaining 1 cup of Pizza blend cheese or ½ cup Parmesan cheese.
5. Cover and bake in preheated 350° oven for about 30 minutes until bubbling. Remove from oven and serve. This is a very mild pasta dish. For more oomph add stronger Parmesan cheese and more vegetables and basil.
Oonagh Williams, proprietor of Royal Temptations, has a Culinary Arts degree, offers Catering services, teaches a variety of classes in International Cooking, makes regular appearances on WMUR ABC Channel 9's Cooks' Corner and has her own series on Merrimack TV. You can contact Oonagh at 603-424-6412.