A Can and a Plan: Clams and Spaghetti

Growing up in the 80s, clams and spaghetti was in the daily dinner rotation pretty much weekly.

As a working maniac mom circa 2019, I totally understand why.

1. It's cheap.

2. It's easy.

3. It's fast

4. It's super amazingly delish.

Shoutout to my mom for the inspiration. She worked everyday as an art teacher extraordinaire, schlepped my sisters and me all over the place, volunteered in many town organizations, maintained the house with no outside help and cooked dinner every freaking night for us.

Superwoman, for sure.

So this one is for all of today's moms getting it done.  Because sometimes you need some easy crowd pleasers that involve little time or thought.

And truth be told:  I rocked this out years ago when my and my husband were kicking it newlywed style. It's amazing no matter what your lifestyle.

You can double this recipe to suit the size of your fam. With one son, mine is pretty small. But I got to say, my boy ate quite a few helpings of this.

Clams from a Can and Spaghetti
Serves 4

6 cloves garlic, minced
1/4- 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
3/4 tsp. oregano
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon
1 cup white wine
1 can of Cento whole baby clams (10 oz.)
1/2 cup Cento clam juice
1/4 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 pound spaghetti
1 to 2 cups of pasta water (as needed)

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Be sure to salt your water according to package instructions.  Cook spaghetti according to instructions on your package. Stir so that the spaghetti doesn't stick together and cooks evenly.

While bringing the pasta water to a boil, make the sauce. In a large sauce pan over medium heat, add olive oil. Add garlic, red pepper flakes and oregano. Cook for 3-4 minutes until fragrant. Add the clams, clam juice, lemon zest, lemon juice, white wine, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add pasta directly from the pot into the clam sauce using a spaghetti spoon. Ladle pasta water into the clam sauce so that the sauce is abundant enough to coat your pasta nicely. Drizzle with olive oil. Top with fresh parsley.

Serve with grated cheese  and extra red pepper flakes if desired.

Turkey Cutlets

Like most peeps trying to get din on the table day to day, I often rely on chicken making frequent appearances on the menu. Roasted, grilled, baked, breaded, sauced, stir-fried, slow-cookered. You follow me, I'm sure.

Of course noshing on the the same thing again and again no matter how you shake it up is the B-word: Boring. Oh, how I loath boring. Boring is a bore! Who wants to be boring? Nobody! That's who.

So I decided to get wild and crazy with chicken's unboring cousin: Turkey.

Right. Turkey is totally boring, too. It's not like I'm talking about quail or duck or pheasant. Just a turkey. But this recipe uses turkey cutlets. Ooooooh. Cutlets.

And turkey tastes way different than chicken. And it has it's own texture. And it's not chicken. So.....there.

Ta da:

No you aren't missing anything. This dish isn't exactly setting the culinary world on fiyah. Glamorous. Sexy. Food pornish. No. Not really at all. That's not what we're going for here, are we?

I can tell you it's good. And your kid will eat it. And it's fast. What more do you want from me?

If you do not have fresh rosemary or thyme just use some dried. As I often do, I cook din at 9 a.m. in the morning and the husband and kiddo heat up the grub at din din time while I work my weirdo-person hours. The turkey reheats just beautifully. It goes great with noodles, rice and of course potatoes in all forms. The last time I made it I put some buttered corn on the side because my kindergartner has a thang for corn. Yes it was frozen. But I made homemade bread that day, too, so we have that going for us.

I got this recipe on Pinterest. I love it. I made it twice and honest to goodness it works. 

This is like a very organized recipe. I love lining up the cutlets on a sheet pan to season them all orderly like so:

 Yeah. I said I love doing that. 

And everything cooks in one pan. First the turkey:

Then the sauce:

Easy peasy. This is a great recipe for all y'all who don't like to cook. Very low stress.

Rosemary and Thyme Turkey Breast Cutlets

From I Wash You Dry

Ingredients

• 1 lb. thinly sliced turkey breast cutlets
• Salt & Pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 4 tbsp butter, cut into 4 pieces
• 1/3 cup chicken broth
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme

Instructions

1. Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and swirl to coat the pan.
2. Season the turkey breast cutlets* with salt and pepper on both sides. Once the pan is nice and hot, add the turkey cutlets and sear for about 1 minute on each side, then remove from skillet to a plate to keep warm. You might have to do this in batches if your skillet is not large enough to fit them all in at once.
3. Once all the turkey is cooked, pour in the white cooking wine** and use a spatula to scrap the bottom of the pan to loosen all the browned bits. Once the liquid has reduced, lower the temperature to medium-low and add in the butter, stirring till the butter melts. Add in the chicken broth, rosemary and thyme and simmer for a couple minutes.
4. Add the turkey breast cutlets back to the pan, including any juices that may have collected at the bottom of the plate. Coat the turkey with the sauce and let simmer a couple more minutes, until the turkey is heated through again. Enjoy!