Normally I make it a practice to plan meals; however, Recently I’ve gotten a little lazy with that. Today was the pinnacle of said laziness. I woke up, had some coffee and realized I took some chicken breasts out the night before with no plans on what to do with it. I kinda love those moments, it’s like playtime in the pantry for me.
After some minor investigation into my inventory I decided to do some bruschetta, grill the chicken and make an Alfredo sauce. All simple tasks that rely more on quality ingredients than combination of seasonings.
For the chicken I made a quick marinade with lime juice, oil, Weber kickin chicken rub and an Amish spice blend that I received as a gift- that stuff was spicy. I marinated the chicken for about 8 hours then grilled in.
For the bruschetta, the most important piece to me is having a good extra virgin olive oil. You really don’t want to go store brand cheap with this, unless your store makes an exceptional olive oil. It really does make a huge difference.
All you need to make this though is:
Buffalo mozzarella -diced
Diced and seared tomato- 1 beefsteak or 2 Roma’s for every half ball of mozzarella.
Fresh basil- if you don’t have fresh use the best you can find. I used some almost fry fresh cut pieces I found because the fresh basil at the store was growing a colony of an unidentifiable white fuzz.
Good olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Pepper and sea salt
I made some
Medallions from French bread that I had laying around but normally I would use baguette.
For the Alfredo, and this is the simplest of all the sauces you can make:
I stick butter
16 oz heavy cream
2 toes of garlic, minced or Finley chopped.
A cup of grated parm
Pepper
Really that’s all you need for this. A traditional Alfredo uses a parm cheese rind and egg yolk. Sometimes I’ll do that, however, I didn’t have the cheese rind, and figured since I’m missing one piece, this simple version would be just fine; and, it was. This recipe takes more time to prep than it does to cook.
You simply melt the butter over medium to low heat, add the garlic, add the cream and bring it to simmer, stirring occasionally. Once it’s at a simmer, stir in the cheese and stir until you have the consistency you like then pour over the pasta of your choice.
This whole meal almost makes you feel like you cheated. You get incredible flavor packed dishes with minimal work.