Here’s an incredibly scrumptious ravioli dish that I just love. Love. This is definitely one of my favorites here, I could eat that crispy sage all day long! The flavor combinations in this dish blow me away every single time. I know you’ll love this one!

I normally use leftover rotisserie chicken in this dish, but just in case you don’t have any on hand, let me show you this quick and easy chicken technique I picked up from the fabulous Picky Palate blog.

Start with 1 lb split chicken breast with rib meat, skin on.

You’ll also need kosher salt, pepper, and this menagerie of spices — dried thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. Smoked is very nice.

Combine 1 tsp of all your spices…

And sprinkle over both sides of the chicken.

Heat one tablespoon of canola oil over medium high heat in a dutch oven or a large, oven-safe pot. We’ll be moving it to the oven later. And if you happen to have leftover bacon grease, like I did, I highly recommend that you use that instead. Like I did.

When the oil is hot, add the chicken skin side down and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes.

Like this.. check out that beautiful crispy skin! Any longer and the spices will start to burn, in which case the dish would become Brown Butter Ravioli with Blackened Chicken, Toasted Walnuts & Crispy Sage.

Flip the chicken over and cook on the other side for 2 more minutes, then move to a 350 degree oven to finish cooking for 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, you’ll need about 1/3 cup of these gorgeous, soft, fragrant sage leaves.

Then go ahead and boil and drain your ravioli. I like this mini three cheese ravioli.

When the chicken is done, allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then chop into bite-sized pieces.

Grab about 1/2 cup walnuts…

And place them in a large skillet over medium heat and toast for 5-7 minutes, stirring frequently, especially during the last couple of minutes so they don’t burn.

Here they are all nice and toasted.

Remove from the skillet and chop.

Next, wipe the skillet of any remaining walnut crumbs, place it back over medium heat and melt 4 tablespoons of butter.

When it just starts to turn brown, add your sage leaves.

And stir constantly for one minute. It burns easily, so after one minute,  immediately add the drained ravioli and stir to combine, then turn the heat to low and add the chicken and most of the chopped walnuts.

Plate the ravioli and top with the remaining chopped walnuts for garnish. For a truly nirvana-like experience, get one of everything in a single bite — cheesy, brown buttery ravioli, crispy sage, a few toasted walnuts, and a bite of your rotisserie chicken. I die.

© kevinandamanda.com, 2011. | Link to this post | Comment on this post | Stumble This Recipe!

This delicious, cheesy, ooey gooey lasagna is so yummy! It may sound weird, but with fresh, summery zucchini, plenty of bacon, three types of cheese, and a little pinch of nutmeg, it’s just bursting with flavor. It’s fun to make and super impressive because you get to toss around phrases like “fontina cheese”, “freshly grated nutmeg” and “Oh, I’m just whipping up a béchamel sauce!”

Give it a try… you won’t be disappointed! :)

What better place to start than with bacon! I’m seriously considering making this my desktop background. You’ll need about 6-8 slices cooked bacon, and here’s how I do it: Arrange bacon slices on a cooling rack (like for cookies) and set on top of sheet pan. If you don’t have a cooling rack, you can just put it in the sheet pan. Or a 9×13 dish. Either will work! :) Place bacon in a cold oven, then turn heat to 400. You don’t have to wait for the oven to preheat, go ahead and set your timer for 16 mins. After 16 mins, flip the bacon and bake for another 16-18 mins, or until done.  Quick. Easy. Painless. Not to mention crunchy & yummy! :)

While the bacon is baking, let’s prepare the zucchini. You’ll need 1 zucchini, or about 2 cups, diced. This summer I planted eight zucchini plants and ended up with more zucchini than any two people could ever possibly eat. So I just pick my zucchini as it’s ready, dice it, and freeze it in ziploc bags. Then when I get ready to use it, it’s all diced up and ready to go. Perfect!

Toss zucchini in olive oil, just enough to coat, add 1-2 cloves minced garlic, and plenty of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. I never used to grind my own pepper until I got this. Love it! Now I never use anything else.

Roast zucchini in an 8×8 baking dish at 400 degrees for 15 mins… You don’t need to spray it, there’s plenty of oil to keep it from sticking. Go ahead and toss it in the oven with your bacon after you flip it if ya want! :)

You’ll also need 3 ounces of shredded fontina cheese. Ooh. I forgot to measure how much that is. I would guess about a cup. I just get the deli to cut off a 3 oz block, then bring it home and shred it.

Now for the good stuff. Once your bacon has cooled, chop into bite sized pieces. Combine bacon, roasted zucchini, fontina cheese, 1/2 cup parmesan cheese, 1 egg, and more kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Set aside while you whip up your béchamel sauce… :)

You’ll need just a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg… delicious! :)

Melt 1 tbsp butter in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add 1 tbsp flour and whisk for 3 minutes. Whisk in 1/2 cup milk. Increase the heat to just above medium. Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is thick and smooth, about 3 minutes. Whisk a pinch each of salt, pepper, and nutmeg into your béchamel sauce. Perfect!

Pour the béchamel sauce into the bottom an 8×8 dish. I use the same dish I roasted the zucchini in. Top with 2 lasagna noodles.

I like no-boil, oven ready lasagna noodles. Plus these are perfectly sized for 8×8! Nevermind the weird waves. Not sure what that’s all about.

Top with the zucchini mixture…

2 more lasagna noodles…

And 1 cup of your favorite marinara or spaghetti sauce.

Now for the really good stuff. Top with fresh mozzarella. I use smoked mozzarella when I can find it.. It gives the lasagna a wonderful smoky flavor. But… this time I couldn’t find it. I did find these mozzarella pearls though.

Very cool.

Aww. They’re cute.

Cover with foil bake at 400 for 20 mins.

Uncover, add a little more parmesan cheese on top, then bake for an additional 15 mins.

Until it looks like this.

Just look at those beautiful, crispy, golden brown and delicious bubbles of mozzarella.

*chomp*

If you can resist, let stand 10 mins before serving. It’s beautiful, cheesy, gooey and delicious! Enjoy! :)

© kevinandamanda.com, 2010. | Link to this post | Comment on this post | Stumble This Recipe!

I love pasta. And noodles. And sauces. And cheese. And all of them mixed together. I could eat pasta every single day for the rest of my life. And be very, very happy.

I love this classic meal. It’s juicy, tender chicken breasts, lightly breaded in Parmesan cheese, golden fried, then topped with marinara sauce and soft, melty, mozzarella cheese. All served on a bed of pasta. And it’s delicious!

This recipe looks like it’s got a lot of ingredients, but most of it is stuff you’ve probably got in your pantry already.

Here’s what you’ll need for the breading. Flour, grated parmesan cheese, salt and steak seasoning (you can also just use pepper).

Whisk all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl.

Now get your chicken… BTW, have you seen this chicken?? Each breast is individually wrapped, so you can use however many you need and save the rest for later.

The best part is that they’re already pounded all nice, flat, and even.

Coat both sides of the chicken with the breading.

And then set it aside for a sec while we make…

The Marinara Sauce!

Begin melting 2 tbsp of butter in a medium sized sauce pan over medium to medium low heat. Add in 3-4 cloves minced garlic, stirring constantly.

My garlic was on steroids tonight.

When the garlic is golden and soft, pour in the tomatoes and add in the sugar. Increase heat to medium-high, bring to a simmer, then reduce heat back to medium-low, cover and continue simmering for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once the sauce has simmered, stir in the cream and season to taste with salt and pepper. I used 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp pepper. Cover and simmer for an additional 3 minutes, then lower heat and keep sauce warm until we’re ready for it.

While your sauce is simmering, let’s go ahead and start the noodles. Bring a large pot of water to boil and add 1 tbsp of salt. Then add your favorite pasta. Tonight I used angel hair pasta. But you could also use spaghetti or linguine.

Our sauce is simmering, our noodles are boiling, what are we missing?? Oh yes!! The perfectly Parmesany breaded chicken. This is going to be good.

Begin heating 2 tbsp of butter and 2 tbsp of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it is nice, hot, melted and brown.

Add your chicken breasts and cook 4 to 5 minutes each side until they are golden.

While the chicken is cooking you can chiffonade your basil and chop up the parsley for the sauce! To chiffonade basil, stack up 6-8 leaves, roll them tightly and thinly slice.

For parsley, you could just use a knife and chop it up, but I find it much easier to use my Pampered Chef chopper. It does the job for me. :)

You’ll want to keep chopping the parsley until you have 1 tbsp to add to the sauce, plus a little more for garnishing the chicken.

As soon as your chicken is done, remove to a plate, top with a little sauce and then sprinkle on mozzarella cheese.

You know what just occurred to me just now as I’m typing this? I didn’t top the chicken with sauce tonight.

Huh.

You know what? It still tasted amazing. lol. Oh well! So top it, or don’t top it with sauce, but either way you want to top it with cheese immediately so it’ll start getting melty.  Then sprinkle on a little parsley.
With the rest of the parsley and basil, throw it in the sauce, stir together, and serve over noodles placed next to the chicken. Top everything with an abundance of Parmesan cheese. For this is Chicken Parmigiana.

Then prepare to be worshiped.

For at least the rest of the evening.

© kevinandamanda.com, 2008. | Link to this post | Comment on this post | Stumble This Recipe!

Do you want the most perfect, flavorful, creamiest Alfredo sauce in the *entire* world? This recipe is seriously, the best. I could eat this every day. This is the perfect “for company” recipe when you want to serve a delicious dish that everyone will *love* and will super-impress your guests and have them all *begging* for the recipe. And it has a nice presentation on the plate!

I adapted this recipe from a recipe on the Sunday Baker’s recipe blog. She’s got a lot of really good recipes, check out her site when you get a chance! :)

Here’s how I make mine.. Let’s start with the chicken.

Rinse 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts in cold water.

Layer between 2 sheets of wax paper and pound until even thickness.

I almost always pound my chicken breasts, no matter what method of cooking, because if they’re even, they’ll cook more evenly *and* I think they make a better presentation. Culinary *and* cosmetic benefits! :)

Now for the marinade…

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice (mix together and let sit for 10 mins and this becomes a substitute for buttermilk)
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

Mix together milk, lemon juice, egg and garlic powder. In a perfect world, you’ll want to pour this in a ziploc bag with the pounded chicken and marinate in the fridge for 2-4 hours. However, I can hardly ever get my act together enough to marinate the chicken 2-4 hours before I eat so…..

Usually I just go ahead and put the chicken right in and let it hang out in there while I’m making the breading mix.

The Breading Mix…

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tbsp Montreal Steak Seasoning

Whisk together flour, bread crumbs, salt, baking powder, and steak seasoning in a medium bowl.

Did you know that whisking produces the same texture as sifting? And it’s much easier! :)

Remove chicken from milk mixture, shake off excess, and coat both sides in flour mixture.

Now we’ve got all three of our chicken breasts nice and breaded. Let’s just let them hang out on this plate for a sec while we ready the noodles!

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 1 tbsp of salt.

When the water has come to a nice, rolling boil, add your favorite pasta. I like to use 1/2 lb of linguine noodles for this recipe. It’s the perfect amount for 2-3 adults. Cook according to package directions.

Now… The Sauce…

Ingredients:
1 scant cup chicken broth (Scant means “a little less than”. So “a little less than” 1 cup. You may also use white wine instead of chicken broth. I give you permission. ;))
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
2-3 cloves minced garlic
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
8 basil leaves, chiffonaded
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

In a medium saucepan, heat chicken broth over medium high heat, bringing to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and whisk in heavy cream, cornstarch, and garlic. Bring to a soft boil and whisk for one minute. Reduce heat to low, whisk in parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Let simmer for about 10 mins to melt cheese, let thicken, and incorporate flavors, whisking occasionally.

Meanwhile…

Add 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat.

We want to let the butter and oil get nice and hot before we add the chicken, so let it get all sizzley, then it’ll calm back down when the butter starts to brown:

When it looks like this, it’s time to add the chicken.

Let the chicken cook 4-5 mins on one side.

Wow! 3 pots at one time! I feel all professional and stuff! ;)

Back to the chicken.

After 4-5 mins, or when the bottom is nice and golden, flip the chicken to the other side and cook an additional 4-5 mins, or until the other side is nice and golden. :)

While the chicken is cooking, let’s chop our herbs. Now I just ran right over to my lovely neighbor’s beautiful garden and picked some fresh basil and parsley right from the ground! :) But if you don’t have access to your neighbor’s garden, you can buy fresh basil and parsley from the produce section of your grocery store. Usually they are hanging in bags on the wall. They are labeled and everything! Very easy. :) But, if you can’t find them, don’t let that stop you from making this recipe. Go ahead and try it without the herbs, I bet you’ll still love it. :) (Note: I would try to buy the basil on the same day you plan on using it. It tends to wilt quickly. Parsley lasts forever though. Okay, maybe a week or two. I haven’t really tested my theory.)

Oh right! Back to the herb chopping.

Grab 6-8 basil leaves

Roll them up tightly

And slice thinly with a sharp knife (I use a paring knife). Oh btw, I am using a cutting board, I’m not doing this straight on my counter! LOL. The cutting board is just clear, so you can see right through it. hah.

Now! We have some chiffonaded basil. Pretty isn’t it? :) Basil smells soooooo good.

Now let’s chop up some parsley.

You could just take a knife and chop up these parsley leaves, but…

I have this Pampered Chef chopper and it does the job for me, much better than I could ever do. :p

Keep chopping until you have about 1 tbsp of chopped parsley.

Now! At this time, everything should be coming together!

Go ahead and throw your herbs into the Alfredo sauce and stir well with a spoon.

Your chicken should be all nice and golden now.

So it’s time to put it all together.

A Parmesan cream sauce with a hint of garlic, served over fettuccine noodles and topped with a lightly breaded, golden fried chicken breast.

And if you feel like it, go ahead and pour some more sauce right over that chicken. It’s *de*licious.

This recipe as is serves 2-3 adults. If you’re serving more than that, you’ll need to double the recipe or adjust it accordingly. :)

Have fun and enjoy! :)

© kevinandamanda.com, 2008. | Link to this post | Comment on this post | Stumble This Recipe!