Vivo O Sonho

Why squid ink pasta? Well, because I bought all the other ingredients for this recipe and forgot the pasta and just happened to have this in my pantry. The bold black color seemed odd when I was cooking it, but actually made for a dramatic presentation. Most often used in seafood dishes, squid ink pasta does have a distinct flavor of sea salt not found in other pasta. I didn’t add any salt to the recipe and it came out absolutely delish!

Hubby loves pasta and we most often feature an Alfredo sauce or he makes his famous red sauce. I wanted to try something different and found turkey tenderloins on sale so did a bit of recipe research and then developed this one with my own twists. It’s rich and creamy comfort food and the celery adds a nice little crunch. It can be prepped and assembled in advance and then popped in the oven 35 minutes before you are ready to serve.

Variations: I imagine this would be good with chicken as well as turkey, and you could also use canned turkey or chicken or leftovers from a previous meal. You could substitute another cream soup for the cream of mushroom, such as celery.

Ingredients: 

• 1 lb turkey, cut into bite size pieces and cooked until no longer pink
• 10 ounces linguine or fettucine noodles, cooked to just al dente
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 stalks of celery, cut into small pieces
• 8 ounces sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 3 garlic cloves, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups grated parmesan cheese

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 can (10.5 ounces) cream of mushroom soup
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper (I like using white pepper in white sauces)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Heat oil and sautee celery, mushrooms and garlic for 3 minutes.
• Add thyme and sautee another minute.
• Combine sauce ingredients; bring just to a slow boil and turn down to simmer.
• Simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• Combine pasta and sauce and gently toss until pasta is fully coated.
• Add turkey and veggies and gently mix.
• Lightly coat a 9 x 12 (or 13) glass casserole pan with cooking spray or oil.
• Turn mixture into the pan; cover lightly with aluminum foil.
• Bake for 20 minutes.
• Remove foil, sprinkle cheese on top, and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.
• Remove from oven and allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 6.