Recipe from Tastebook

Serves 4

Pasta

Ingredients

• 2 lbs – penne pasta
• 4 – chicken breasts, grilled
• 4 slices – applewood-smoked bacon, cooked
• 3 cups – chile asiago cream sauce (see recipe below)
• 3 Tbsp – green onions, chopped
• 1 – large fresh tomato, diced Parsley

Preparation

• Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, grill over medium high heat until juices run clear.
• Cook pasta according to package directions, drain.
• Add the cooked bacon and grilled chicken to a large saute pan, add the chile Asiago cream sauce and the pasta, cook until heated through.
• Top with diced tomatoes and diced green onions.

Chile Asiago Cream Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp – olive oil
• ⅓ cup – chile rub (ancho chile powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, sugar and salt)
• 2 – garlic cloves, minced
• 1 – shallot, minced
• ¼ cup – white wine
• 1 cup – chicken stock
• 1 cup – heavy cream
• 1 cup – milk
• 1 tsp – kosher salt
• 1 tsp – ground black pepper
• Roux – (Wisk 2 Tbsp flour with ½ cup of chicken stock to make a paste)
• 1 ½ cups – Asiago cheese, grated
• 3 Tbsp – basil, roughly chopped

Preparation for the Sauce

1. Heat the olive oil in a sauce pan on medium high heat, add the shallots, garlic and chile rub, cook until softened but not browned.
2. Add the wine and cook until reduced by half.
3. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer.
4. Add the heavy cream, milk, salt and pepper, cook for about 3 minutes.
5. Add the roux, cheese, and basil, stir until thickened.
6. Remove from heat, cool and refrigerate until you are ready to add it to the pasta dish.

I forgot to take pictures so I’ll post the pictures that came with the recipes.

For the pasta I used the wrong kind of beets my pasta ended up light pink instead of red. I can’t find the exact recipe I used so here’s one that I just found that looks better.

FRESH BEET PASTA – LINGUINE

4 tbl pureed red beets (about two medium beets)
7 egg yolks
1 tbl milk
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more for roasting beets
¼ tsp salt
2 ½ cups flour, plus more for kneading dough
Preheat oven to 365˚. Wash, dry and lightly coat beets with olive oil. Tightly wrap beets in aluminum foil and roasted in oven for about an hour (or until the beets can be easily pierced with a knife). Set a side. Once the beets are cool enough to handle, peel and puree in a food processor until they reach the stage of a smooth puree.
In a medium bowl, mix together the egg yolks, milk, 2 teaspoon of olive oil and salt. Stir in beet puree.
Mound the flour on the countertop creating a well in the center large enough to hold the beet mixture. Pour beet mixture into the flour well.
Using your finger or fork, begin making a circular motion in the beet mixture to slowly start incorporating into the flour. If needed, occasionally push a little of the flour into the well. Continue until the beet mixture becomes incorporated with the flour. Once the dough begins to form, mound it together into a rough ball (see unkneaded dough photograph above). Knead the dough on a clean, lightly floured area of the countertop. The dough will be sticky at first, but will be come smoother as you continue kneading. Sprinkle with a bit of flour if the dough is too sticky to work with. Knead the dough by pushing down and away from you with the palm of your hands and turning the dough onto it self. Knead dough for no less than 10 minutes. After kneading, the dough should have a smooth texture (see kneaded dough photograph above). Cover with plastic wrap and let stand for 1 hour.
Cut dough into 6 equal parts. Starting at the widest setting, run each piece through the pasta press attachment of KitchenAid mixer. Gradually, press the dough through smaller and smaller settings until you get about 1/8″ thick (setting “5″ on the KitchenAid pasta press). Once you have pressed all six pieces. Run the pasta strips through the linguine cutter attachment. Separate and hang (or layout) linguine until ready to cook.
Alternatively, you can roll out the pieces of dough with a rolling pin on a lightly floured counter top until you reach the desired thickness. Roll pasta into loose cylinders and cut into strips of linguine.
Bring a large sauté pot of salted water to boil. Cook the pasta until done, up to 2 minutes – overcooking will drain the pasta of its rich color. Drain and serve.
http://ceramiccanvas.com/2009/05/fresh-beet-pasta-cod/

For the final dish, I followed the recipe below but I ended up adding a roasted beet to the final dish and blending it in. The final effect was more of a dark pink. I also trued to overcompensate and added too much sauce so it was really heavy. Also, I had nested the pasta and froze itr. Some of the pasta didn’t end up unnesting so there were some clumps of uncooked pasta.