Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Pasta alla Random

Every other week or so, we have pasta alla random...which, translated, is random pasta. It is officially whatever we have in the house tossed with pasta. Tonight it was butternut squash, mushrooms, and spinach. And chicken. And parmesan cheese. NEVER forget the cheese.

I peeled, cleaned out, and cubed a butternut squash. I just lied. You can find out how to prepare a butternut squash from this post. But I went to the store the other day and I found a package of fresh butternut squash, already cubed, in the produce section, with a choir of angels singing behind it. Once you cube it up or tear open the package and dump it out onto a baking sheet, dress it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and put it in a 400 degree oven for 30 or 40 minutes, while you get the rest of the meal ready.

Chop a pack of button mushrooms and saute in a big pot. Don't really chop the package itself. Just the mushrooms will do. You also can add some chicken. I bought a really big pack of chicken breasts on manager's special, and I went ahead and cooked half the pack and chopped it all up earlier in the day. I'll freeze what I didn't use of the cooked chicken, and I also froze the uncooked half in individual bags for later meals. Back to the pot.

Once the mushrooms and chicken are cooked, sprinkle flour over everything, and then stir in 2 cups chicken broth. Add salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Let it thicken up for about 10 or 15 minutes.

Cook one box of whole wheat angel hair pasta for only 4 minutes. Then drain it and add it to the big pot to let it finish cooking. Once the noodles are tender, wilt in some spinach. I had half a bag in the fridge, so that's what I used, but it would have been good with more spinach. Finally, take out your roasted squash and add it to the pot. Stir it all around and then eat it!


Random pasta...a staple in our household. Enjoy!

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