Cooking Class at 51 Lincoln - 5 Pasta Sauces!

Last weekend, I took a cooking class at one of our favorite restaurants, 51 Lincoln in Newton, MA.  The title of course sold me immediately: "Five Minute Pasta Sauces".  They have a whole series of classes that have included Breakfasts, Homemade Pasta, Canning, and Butchering (just to name a few).  The courses run from 9am-12pm and take place in the restaurant's kitchen.

I arrived at the restaurant a little before 9 and immediately made my way to the kitchen, where I found a station set up for each person in the class.  As everyone filed in, we started the class with some knife skills.  This class we focused on dicing onions, mincing and slicing garlic, and cutting herbs so they don't bruise.  We all chopped away, actually preparing the ingredients we'd use in our pasta sauces.  We also practiced "flipping" the contents in the pan using kernels of corn.  After spilling corn all over the kitchen, we quickly mastered the "push, pull" motion that would allow us to stir our pasta sauces without using a spoon.

The instructor had prepared some paperwork with information about each of the five sauces we were going to make, along with the recipes.  The sauces we made were Marinara, Puttanesca, Butter & Cheese, Meuniere, and Alfredo.  Today I'll share the Puttanesca and Meuniere sauce recipes with you, so make sure you check back for the other three later!

It was amazing to watch her make each of these sauce.  You always think you can never make something as fantastic as what you're served in a restaurant like 51 Lincoln, but NOW I can...and in about the same time as it takes to brew a pot of coffee.

Then it was our turn!  We each grabbed a frying pan, claimed our burner on their massive stove top, and got to cookin!  Only one person burned something out of all 6 of us, which I thought was pretty good for some first timers cookin' fast.  Here are a few of my creations!

Once one of us would finish a recipe, we'd transfer it into a large bowl with the like recipes.  When everyone was done in the kitchen, we moved to the bar to relax and enjoy a spread featuring all of all our hard work!  It was the perfect way to end a fun morning.

The important thing with these sauces is to have all of your ingredients prepped and ready to add.  Since the sauces take such a short amount of time to cook these, you won't have time to stop and chop!

As promised, here are two of the recipes from the day.

Puttanesca Sauce
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
3 anchovy filets
1/4 cup white wine
1 28-ounce can whole plum tomatoes (drain and reserve juice)
1/2 cup pitted black olives (preferably oil-cured)
2 Tablespoons capers
Crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked pasta of choice

Directions
1.  Place a medium pan over high heat.  Add oil, turn down to medium.
2.  Add anchovies and garlic, and cook until garlic is golden brown.
3.  Add olives and capers, cook for a few seconds and de-glaze with white wine.
4.  Add tomatoes and 1 Tablespoon of the reserved juice.  Cook on medium-high for a couple of minutes
5.  Add pasta and toss, adding more tomato juice if needed.  Finish with parsley, chili flakes, and a drizzle of evoo.

Meuniere Sauce
Ingredients
1 Tablespoon butter
1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1.  Heat up a medium pan over medium-low heat.
2.  Add butter and cook until it begins to brown.
3.  Take off the heat and swirl in lemon juice and parsley.
4.  Serve over fish, chicken, or toss with pasta.

It was seriously some of the most fun I've had in a long time.  The instructor was friendly and a fantastic teacher - encouraging and clear...just what we needed.

If you live in the Boston area, check out 51 Lincoln's cooking class schedule to see if there's a class you'd like to take.  I hear there will be several more added in the next few weeks!  I'll DEFINITELY be going back!

Italian Chicken and Pasta

I love a good, quick, pasta recipe.  Even better...one that uses leftovers from the night before.

One of my go-to "I want to sit on the couch while dinner cooks" recipes is Italian chicken.  It's simple - marinate chicken breasts with Italian dressing in a plastic bag before you go to work in the morning.  When you come home, pour the chicken and dressing into a Pyrex dish and bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

I usually baked 4-6 breasts so we'll have leftovers throughout the week.  One of my favorite things to do with this flavorful chicken is a quick pasta dish you're gonna love.

Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (with a little of the marinade)
3 small tomatoes
1/2 red onion
Olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese + more to top with
Garlic powder
Salt
1/2 box pasta (we went with thin spaghetti)

Directions

Prepare your ingredients!  Cut chicken into bite-size pieces, dice red onion, and cut tomatoes into chunks.  I like to remove the seeds from the tomato to keep them from watering down the sauce.

Saute red onion in 1 tablespoon olive oil and salt.

Once onions are translucent, add chicken and tomatoes.  Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have broken down, stirring frequently (about 15 minutes).

Cook and drain pasta.  Add pasta, 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and a sprinkle of garlic powder to the pan and mix with sauce until combined.

Serve and top with a little more Parmesan cheese.  So quick and easy!  Nothing better than a delicious meal from leftovers!

Another thing I wanted to mention is a photography workshop I'm going to this weekend.  If you're in the (greater) Boston area, check out Camera Ready Boston.  It's a full day (10-5:30) of lots of information and fun with other novices and bloggers.  Here's what we're going to learn.

By the end of the day you'll be able to comfortably shoot in manual mode and know all about aperture, ISO and shutter speed. You'll understand how best to shoot in low light, bright sun, and how to maximize and use available light most effectively when shooting. You'll learn the basic rules of framing shots, how to shoot still objects, people, and how to tell a story and shoot a process. You'll also learn basic editing tricks in Lightroom to really make your images shine. You'll get hands on practice and learn best practices for using your images on the web, in a blog, for your small business, or for your family albums.

At the end of the day, the professionals are even going to take portraits of everyone who attends.  There are a few spots left, so act soon!

Shrimp & Mushroom Pasta

Travis and I love experimenting with different pastas.  This is one of our more recent favorites – a shrimp and mushroom pasta with a butter garlic sauce!  The best part of the dish is that it’s very easy and can feed 4-6 people.

You’ll need:

Thin spaghetti

3/4 to 1 pound of shrimp

8 ounces sliced mushrooms 

4-5 roma tomatoes, chopped

2-3 cloves minced garlic

Butter 

Olive Oil 

Chicken Broth

Salt & Pepper

Parmesan Cheese

First you’re going to cook the shrimp and mushrooms.   Saute shrimp in two batches, each with 1 Tbsp butter, a splash of chicken broth, salt and a little of the garlic you minced.  Once the pan is hot, it’ll only take the shrimp about a minute per side to cook.  Transfer shrimp into a bowl for later.

Once you’ve cooked both batches of shrimp, add another ½ tablespoon of butter and the mushrooms to the pan.  Pour in enough chicken broth to cover the bottom of the pan, and sprinkle with salt and a little more of the minced garlic.  Cook on high, stirring frequently, for 5-6 minutes until the mushrooms begin to soften. 

Now put it all together!  In a large frying pan, add 1 tablespoon butter, 1 tablespoon olive oil, tomatoes,  the rest of the minced garlic, and a splash of chicken broth.  Simmer for 5 minutes or until the tomatoes start to get soft, then add the shrimp. 

Add pasta and mix.  Pour entire dish into a serving bowl and top with Parmesan cheese.  Serve to your household of hungry people!

P.S.  I think this would also be delicious with asparagus, but since Travis isn't a fan, I left it out this time.