Pasta with Pistachio-Parmesan Cream Sauce

 

I'm usually a red sauce gal when it comes to pasta, but the idea for this cream sauce came to me as I was driving home from the grocery store with one of my household staples, a package of chicken tortellini.  I remembered that I had a basic "pasta con panna" recipe at home that I thought I could manipulate into something new and different.  I love it when a plan comes together. I used my filled tortellini, but you can make to coat your favorite pasta. Will go well with anything.

Buon appetito, y'all!

Pistachio-Parmesan Cream Sauce

1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 cup white wine, room temp
1 cup Half and Half or heavy cream, room temp
1/4 cup shredded Paremesan
salt and pepper to taste
cornstarch (optional)

Using a food processor, finely chop the pistachios.  If you don't want nut chunks in your sauce, but still want the flavor, you can process to a nut paste consistency and use that in the sauce.  Set aside.

In a medium size pan, saute minced garlic with olive oil over medium high heat until translucent and fragrant.

Pour in white wine and bring mixture to a boil.  Allow to cook until wine is reduced by half. The reduction will intensify the flavor.

Whisk in cream until well blended.  Make sure your cream is not cold when you add it to the pan, otherwise it will curdle and you don't want cream chunks in your sauce.

Whisk in shredded paremesan until melted and blended into sauce.

Add in the pistachios, and still until evenly spread throughout the sauce.  If you went with the nut paste, whisk in until well blended.  Salt and pepper to taste.

OPTIONAL -- if you want a slightly thicker sauce (like I did), spoon out 2 tsp of the liquidy sauce and mix with 1 tsp of cornstarch.  Pour mixture back into the sauce pan and bring to a quick boil.  When it starts to thicken, remove from heat and set aside.

Boil up a batch of your favorite pasta according to directions, rinse, drain, add sauce and enjoy.  Garnish with rough chopped pistachios and/or Parmesan.

Glögg

Here's a tasty brew to help warm you up on those cold winter nights, that are happening somewhere, just not here in North Carolina.  It's a traditional Swedish Christmas drink that I used to hear about all the time when I was in college.  The grandmother of my Swedish-descended roommates used to make it every year when they went home for the holidays.  This is not a recipe for the feint-of-heart or teetotalers in the crowd, but for the rest of us...sheer bliss.

Glögg

2-1/4 cups port
2-1/4 cups red wine
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 small piece of fresh ginger, peeled
1 cinnamon stick, broken into smaller pieces
6 whole cloves
1/2 orange peel
1 tsp ground cardamon (or 6 cardamon pods)
1/3 cup raisins (optional)
1/3 cup slivered almonds (optional)
1 cup brandy
cheesecloth

In a medium pot, combine port, red wine, water and sugar over low heat.

Cut a large double-thick square of cheesecloth.  Put the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, orange peel and cardamon in the center.

this is what I mean by "small" piece

Wrap into a ball (or tie with string).  Beat the ball with a mallet.  Bruising the spices help release their flavors as it steeps.

Put spice ball in the wine mix and add in raisins and almonds (if you'd like) and simmer just below boiling for 20-25 minutes.  I set my burner between 4-5 on the dial to get it just below boiling.

Once the mixture has simmered, remove the spice ball, add in the brandy, and strain out the raisins and almonds (if you put them in) and serve.  Toasty warm belly goodness on its way.

NOTES


Since you can't really get cardamon pods in your regular grocery store, I used ground cardamon.  To keep the spice from getting loose and scumming the surface of the mixture, I cut another small double-thick piece of cheesecloth. I put the spice in the middle and then cigarette-rolled it and put the rolled bundle in the middle of the spice pack.  That way the spice would still get steeped, but would be hard-pressed to escape.


I included the raisins and almonds because that's what the majority of the traditional recipes called for.  You won't compromise the flavor by omitting them.  I set mine aside to use as an adult garnish on my next bowl of Irish oatmeal...num.

I apologize for the miniscule font on the post (if it comes out looking miniscule on your screen too).  I cut and pasted something in a different font and it's screwed up something and I'm too tired and computer-illiterate to try and figure it out tonight.  Sunday's post should be back to font normal. :)

In vino veritas

We’re starting off our Food Gifting marathon with wine. Now we don’t claim to be wine experts by any stretch of the imagination –- Wendi doesn’t drink wine and K2’s more a “ooh, look a pretty bottle” connoisseur –- so actual recommendations we’ll leave to the experts, BUT we will give you ideas on how to make a Wow presentation with your gift!

We look at wine gifting as a chance to expose friends to new wines that they might not have chosen for themselves otherwise. So, to that end, our rule of thumb is that if you don’t know how it tastes, go with how it looks. (If you’re not that brave and want your wine-drinking friends to ask you back, we would suggest asking someone who knows.)

“Simply” Elegant

If you want a near-to-no brainer gift, pick out your wine gift bag first then find a wine to match it! There are so many cool labels and bottle shapes out there that it should be easy to do. It’s subtle, but if you find a bag, bottle, and tissue that has a theme it’s going to make your gift look well put-together and it will register on some level that this is more than just a grab-and-go gift.





A Little Something Extra

Don’t send your wine out on its own! Add a little something extra to tag along with it -- like chocolate, a nice corkscrew, fancy nuts, or some cute coasters. There are lots of little things you can find that will make a nice companion for your vino. Check out the dollar bins at your local craft store or hit a dollar store to see what you can find.





A Trisket A Trasket

Gift baskets are fun to put together, though honestly it’s not always the less expensive route to go. But when cost is not really an issue, what we like about doing it ourselves is that it can be personalized to suit your "giftee's" tastes or used as an opportunity to show off your artistic and/or culinary talents.

This basket has two half-bottles of wine, three sample-size cheeses and a variety of homemade crackers – cracked pepper, sesame, and plain. With smaller items you can get a wider variety of goodies in it. You may already have a favorite cracker recipe, but if not, this is the one we use and just add our own spice variety to it, http://www.recipesource.com/baked-goods/breads/07/rec0708.html.




For more of a splash, we picked a red color scheme for this festive bucket. The shiny star spray and red fill (both from the Dollar Store) picks up the shininess of the metal bucket. Then for the gift we have a bottle of red, some fancy crackers, a wheel of brie and a matching red bottle opener (sorry not really visible, see "stuff" photo above).



The Right Stuff

For baskets, buckets, and other containers, we recommend you check not only craft stores, but hardware stores or shops like Ross or TJ Maxx where you can find unusual items at discount prices. Thrift shops is another place to find baskets or unusual containers. Fills, bows, and funky ribbons can be found inexpensively at dollar stores, fabric shops, or craft shops.

Most grocery stores these days have a pretty decent selection of wines and there are any number of wine warehouses around too, but if you’re in the market for great wine at great prices you should check out the smaller specialty stores. In fact, we have a family & friend favorite to recommend for those of you who are local, Wine Authorities in Durham (check out our “Check It Out” post for their web link).

We hope this will give you some things to think about and get those creative juices flowing!