You pour a pint of heavy cream into a pan, sprinkle in some black pepper and a tiny bit of salt, and reduce it over low heat. While it reduces, you can boil pasta water/cook pasta and give a very quick steam to some three-inch-long segments of fresh asparagus (which you should be very careful not to overcook).
This is one of those fun dishes that's really easy to time. Pasta water goes on, steaming water goes on, wash and cut asparagus, put on cream to reduce, steam asparagus, put pasta in boiling water. Right before you take the pasta off, add the asparagus and prosciutto to the cream - don't add it too soon or else the prosciutto will cook, which is just weird - and bang! Dinner. Oh, add parmesan or romano or what have you.
I do realize that even the asparagus can't keep this from essentially being a plate of carbs soaked in heavy cream. Which brings me to my next point: there's no way to keep the sauce from being runny, so I recommend serving with a nice crusty bread, and using that to sop up the extra cream. I also recommend serving this with Lactaid. Because being mildly lactose intolerant (which I am) is no excuse. And a salad might not be out of order, either. You know, if you care about your arteries.
Here's another chicken breast recipe, courtesy of the truckload of chicken in my freezer. I'm actually using it all up - only 4 pieces left!
This was an impromptu inspiration a few years ago - I had chicken, asparagus, chèvre, and arugula. What to do...EUREKA! And today I found myself in the same situation - chicken breast, a small amount of asparagus leftover from the asparagus tart I made a couple days ago, a bag of arugula, and some tasty, tasty herbed goat cheese. Plus, I had an open bottle of white wine to use up. I'm moving in 2 weeks, so I'm trying to use up everything in my fridge and pantry. Chicken broth in the cupboard...use that sucker up!
I think my favorite thing about this dish is how the chèvre starts to mix in with the pan sauce, and then the arugula catches all of the excess to make a seriously tasty little salad underneath.
My sister won't eat this because apparently they used to serve those frozen, molded stuffed chicken breasts in her sorority house all the time, and the ladies got to calling them "hamsters." So here you are, folks, asparagus and chèvre stuffed hamster over arugula!
Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts 10 spears of asparagus (approx - more if you only want to use the head ends) 2 oz herbed chèvre (approx) salt and pepper olive oil 1/2 cup white wine 1 1/2 cups chicken broth 2 loose cups arugula, washed and drained
Equipment: 1 skillet or chef's pan 1 baking dish kitchen twine
1. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pound the chicken breasts flat and lay them underside up. Salt and pepper. Cut the asparagus spears to the width of the chicken breasts. (I used all head-ends because I had enough asparagus left and I wasn't going to use it for anything else, but you can use head-ends and stalks.) Lay chèvre in slices across the asparagus.
2. Roll up chicken breasts and secure with kitchen twine. Make sure to tie them pretty tight, so the stuffing doesn't come out.
3. Heat olive oil in a skillet on medium-high. Sear chicken rolls for a few minutes on each side, so the whole thing gets a nice crust. Transfer to a baking dish.
4. Bake until cooked through, about 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the pan sauce. (IMPORTANT - make sure to remove any pieces of chèvre that have oozed onto the skillet before deglazing.) Deglaze the pan with the wine, then add about 1 1/4 cups of the chicken broth. Raise the heat to high and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium high and allow the sauce to reduce. When thickened, add the remaining chicken broth, stir, and reduce heat to low (this prevents the pan sauce from gumming up on you while you wait for the chicken). Allow to simmer for a few minutes until sauce is a rich brown and the chicken is done. Remove twine from chicken. Divide arugula between 2 plates and place one chicken roll on each. Spoon pan sauce over. Drink some wine.
I've had a single sheet of puff pastry sitting in my freezer for like 3 months. I used one sheet for some peach turnovers and haven't thought of a way to use the second sheet in the box. I was looking over my grocery list and lamenting the fact that I love asparagus, but I often don't manage to use a whole bunch before it goes bad because I'm usually only cooking for one, and I tend to overbuy vegetables in general because they're so fresh and pretty and yummy. Then, when I was in the cheese section at Trader Joe's, it came to me. Asparagus tart! It'll use up that piece of puff pastry AND the extra asparagus from ANOTHER recipe I'll probably be blogging about later this week. Plus, any excuse to use Gruyere is gravy.
I'm sure there are a bajillion versions of this out there, but it's super simple and tasty. It's also great as a meal, an appetizer, or even a side, depending on how big you cut the pieces. Great vegetarian option too. You could use all Gruyere if you want, but I think it's a little strong in that amount, so I mix it with baby Swiss. Plus, Gruyere is like...4 times more expensive, so mixing it up is a good way to get the Gruyere taste without piling like $15 worth of it on there.
Ingredients:
1 sheet of puff pastry 1 cup shredded baby Swiss (you could totally use regular swiss, but it's not quite as soft so it doesn't melt the same way) 3/4 cup shredded Gruyere about 8 oz asparagus (about 2/3 of a bunch - try to get thinner ones so they cook faster) olive oil for drizzling salt pepper
1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Lightly flour work surface and roll thawed puff pastry out to around 10x14 (you'll really only have to roll it lengthwise, since the width is already about right). Trim edges to make them even, if you want. Using a sharp knife, trace a border about an inch from the edge. Don't push all the way through the pastry. Inside the border, poke the pastry with a fork about every half inch or so.
2. Place pastry on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. You might want to put down a piece of parchment. I didn't have any, so I didn't bother, but it does make it a bit easier.
3. Mix shredded cheese together and spread inside the border on the pastry. Cut asparagus to fit the width of the inside section and line up head to toe, as it were. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt and pepper.
4. Bake until asparagus is tender, about 20-25 minutes. (This is sort of why you'll want to use asparagus on the thinner side - you want them to cook before the puff pastry burns. If the pasty does start to burn, lightly cover the border with aluminum foil.)
5. Cut with a pizza wheel. If you're looking for it to be a main, cut it in 4-6 pieces. For a side, 6-8 pieces. For an appetizer, I dunno, however many you want. I used it as a side, and paired it with some parmesan crusted chicken I made yesterday and an arugula salad with mini heirloom tomatoes and shaved parmesan. TASTY!
MEDIA PAIRING:
I was going to post a music video by a J-Pop band that is actually called Asparagus, but instead, I'm posting this video of a father inexplicably pelting his son with asparagus...apparently it has something to do with knocking out a loose tooth? He's very proud of his "short film."
