Use Up Your Cold Cuts!: Creamy Turkey Pasta

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I haven’t posted in a while beacause I have been having my own great holiday and finishing up my finals for school. Phew.

But I am back.

Michael and I got a bunch of new cook books for Christmas which I spent some time flipping through, getting inspiration, this morning to plan the week’s meals. And tonight’s dish was a creamy turkey pasta!

This recipe turned out delicious and uses cold cut turkey (you can use whatever type you prefer, however) which is really great for if you have some meat from the deli that is about to go bad. The cream sauce also tasted deceptively fatty, but was actually made with all skim milk and a small amount of margarine.

Start cooking up your pasta first thing. I used bow ties because it was what I had in my cabinet, but use whatever you want. I always like fettuccini with cream sauces because it holds on to just the right amount of sauce in my opinion. The rest of this recipe is cooking the sauce for half a box of bowtie pasta.

I will preface the rest of this by saying I did not use precise measuring at all, but I have guestimates of about how much I used. You’ll be able to “feel” when you have enough of everything.

I melted 1.5-2 tablespoons of margarine into a large sauce pan on low heat and then tossed in about the same amount of jarred minced garlic. Fresh garlic would also work but if you use fresh you won't need as much for the same punch of flavor. Melt the two until they are evenly mixed.

I added my flour 1 teaspoon at a time until the mixture in the saucepan took on a paste-like texture.

 

Add about a half cup of milk to that and slowly stir until everything melts together. The mixture will once again return to a paste consistency as the milk heats up. Make sure the heat is nice and low and keep adding milk until you get a creamy consistency that is to your liking.

I sliced up about five slices of cold cut turkey roughly into strips.

 I dumped the turkey right into the sauce pan along with some dried basil and parsley.

Strain the pasta really well and dump it into the sauce pan and stir it in with the sauce.

And then it is ready to go!

This recipe went over very well so I will definitely make again.

I love the idea of using cold cuts in this because it is such a simple way of incorporating some protein in with a pasta dish. Also, how many times do you find yourself tossing away expensive deli meat because you didn’t finish it quickly enough. Uhm, me. All the time. I will for sure think of this dish if I have some lunch meat approaching its expiration date.

 (PS The Christmas Pig had a very nice holiday as well. She has been LOVING the snow here in New England.)

 

Have a fantastic New Year everyone :)

-Brooke