Creamy Fettuccine with Leeks, Mushrooms and Spinach

This week I have two things that I want to write about. The first is an event that Matt and I attended last Monday in Stowe, VT. The event was a benefit dinner, gala, and auction for the March of Dimes. It was called the Signature Chef Event. Thirteen of Central Vermont's best chefs were on hand, each at a station, cooking up some amazing sample size meals. There was also a silent auction and a live auction, but for the sake of this food-style blog I want to focus on the amazing food!

Before getting into the food I should explain that I was an amazingly picky eater as a child. I would literally only eat hot dogs and macaroni and cheese (never together). My relatives still like to point out this fact every time we get together (as do my highschool friends). This is relevant to the story because two of my relatives were also at this gala and we, of course, talked about how far I had come as an eater. I truly pushed the boundaries of food I'd try-- adding at least 4, and probably more, items.

Some of the really challenging things I tried at the event: pork belly, pork cheek, lamb, duck and fish.

The small element that I saw in one of the chef's dishes that was really interesting and I look forward to trying myself was fried garlic chips. Think of a potato chip, but made out of a slice of garlic. These were truly amazing and were served by Michael's on the Hill chef, Michael Kloeti as a garnish over lamb stew that was served atop a mound of amazing mashed potatoes. I loved the lamb stew flavor... unless I got too big of a chunk of lamb... Don't make fun! This was a challenging thing for me even to try!

The best overall food item I ate was a tie between the Fried Pork Cheek served over a creamy, garlicy tartar sauce and the cider braised pork with homemade pickled bell pepper served on a homemade thick-cut potato chip. This is truly amazing since usually I don't care for pork!

Honorable mentions in my mind went to Suzanna Keefer of Suzanna's Catering who made a delicious Cesar Salad that was wrapped in thin prosciutto (we were sure to take one of her cards!) and a duck tamale from Frida's Taqueria in Stowe.

I look forward to using the flavor combinations and techniques I saw at the event in later posts.

Now, onto the recipe!

This week I was lucky to cook dinner for Matt and a special guest, my dad! My mom was away for business in Connecticut (enjoying a company paid dinner at Ruth's Chris) so we took pity on my dad (who tends to eat his culinary specialty, a bowl of cereal, when my  mom is away) and invite him to dinner. I was trying to decide what to make while flipping through a binder of torn out magazine recipes and hand written recipe cards when I saw a recipe I pulled from Real Simple Magazine. It was titled Creamy Fettuccine with leeks, corn and arugula. I thought about the CSA items still in the fridge (one of which was leeks). I decided to make a variation of this recipe, using the local, fresh ingredients I had. When I looked at the other ingredients in the recipe I noticed heavy cream and thought... hmm... why add heavy cream when I can make just as creamy and delicious a sauce with a roux, skim milk, some neufchatel (fat free cream cheese) and some regular cheese... below is the adapted recipe (see real recipe here)

Creamy Spaghetti with Leeks, Mushrooms, and Spinach

3/4 box of spaghetti or other noodle pasta

1 tbs butter (I used the roasted garlic compote butter I had in the freezer from last week)
1 tbs flour
1 cup skim milk
1/4 cup neufchatel (fat free cream cheese)
1/4 cup other cheese (I used some parmesan and some mozzarella)
salt and pepper

1 tbs olive oil
2 leeks (white and light green parts, cut into thin half-moons)
1/4 - 1/2 hot pepper, minced
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cups spinach
1/2 cup dry white wine

Boil pasta according to directions (or 1 minute shy if you like al dente because it will cook a bit in the skillet, too).

Meanwhile melt butter in a sauce pan, whisk in flour. Heat, stirring, over low-medium heat until smokey in color. Whisk in milk. When the milk starts to thicken add neufchatel and other cheese. Stir until all cheeses and melted and thoroughly combined. Season. Remove from heat.

In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add leeks, garlic and hot pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender (4 minutes). Add the mushrooms and wine. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the wine has reduced by half. Add the spinach and white sauce to skillet (you may have to reheat the white sauce slightly so it pours easily). Stir until the spinach is wilted and mushrooms are cooked. Stir in the pasta and cook until heated through. Season.

Serve hot, with lots of bread and good cheese (we had brie and local chevre)


As often happens with meals I cook, this meal turned out a little spicy. There are two reasons as to why this may have occured: 1- When my dad comes for dinner I DO NOT hold back on the garlic. He has a motto, "There is no such thing as too much garlic!" or 2- the hot pepper I added may have been massively hot. My dad grew these peppers and the heat varies extremely from pepper to pepper. Since I like hot food I tried the pepper before putting it into the pasta and didn't think it was outrageously hot so I am inclined to think it was the garlic. I add the hot pepper more to enhance other flavors than to actually make the dish spicy because Matt is not a fan of hot food. This meal wasn't too hot, but it was definitely spicy. If you don't like spice feel free to leave out the hot pepper or reduce the garlic (just don't tell my dad).

The other interesting thing about the spice in this dish is that is complemented the leeks amazingly. The leeks added a sweet taste to the dish that would have been too much for me if it had not had a little spice.

Spinach Crepes with Two Fillings

Matt and I are very lucky to live in a state, Vermont, that prides itself in local, fresh, delicious food. One way that we take advantage of this fact is enrolling in a CSA (community supported agriculture) program where we pick up a basket of veggies once a week throughout the summer (winter CSAs are available also). The drawback is that we do not get to choose what we get each week, instead, we get whatever the farmers have a lot of. Our CSA is really good about not giving us the exact same thing each week so that we do not get bored with the food. One of our items this week was leeks.

I love leeks! It took me a long time to discover them and actually start using them-- I think I didn't actually cook with leeks until college (which is strange because I remember finding wild leeks as a child). I started out using leeks in the normal way- Potato Leek Soup. Now, one of my favorite autumn recipes is a chicken, leek and apple dish (which was partly the inspiration for this blog's recipe). Also, for my birthday this year, my family took me out to a fancy Italian restaurant in Burlington, VT that I had wanted to go to for a long time. This restaurant is known for using local, fresh ingredients and fine Italian imported items together. When we visited the veggie of choice was roasted leeks which were served with nearly all of the secondi (meat) menu options.

With a fridge full of fresh Vermont leeks I went to the internet and searched foodandwine.com and foodnetwork.com for different recipes that I could try out. I came up with 5 possibilities that I wanted to try and let Matt choose which one he was in the mood for. He chose chorizo-leek crepes (see link to foodnetwork recipe below).

I have a tried and true crepe recipe from one of my cookbooks, which I use often. The recipe is actually for spinach crepes but I usually leave the spinach out and make sweet crepes (really just an excuse to eat nutella). This was the first time I included the spinach (another product of the CSA this week) to make savory crepes.

Spinach Crepe Recipe from Fifteen Minute Meals by Emalee Chapman

1/2 cup small spinach leaves (no stems)

1 egg

3 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup flour

3/4 cup milk

Place all ingredients in blender, blend for 1 minute, let sit a few minutes. 

To cook crepes (wait until fillings are prepared to cook crepes): 

Heat a small skillet (or crepe pan) until "a drop of water jumps in the pan". Put 1-2 tbsp of batter into the pan and immediately swirl the pan to allow the batter to spread into a 6-7" round. Watch as the batter cooks from the outside in and when the very middle of the crepe seems 3/4 cooked use a small rubber spatula to separate the crepe from the pan. Stack cooked crepes between layers of waxed paper. The crepes are so thin you do not have to flip them, also crepes will cook in about 30 seconds. Time is of the essence.

This recipe makes a lot, probably 15-20 crepes depending on size and they are bright green, which I love. 

As for the filling, the recipe I had was for Chorizo and Leek crepes with sour cream but I made my own filling so I'll post my invented recipe. 

Crepe Fillings

5 leeks, sliced thinly (white and light green part only)

2 links spicy Italian sausage, casing removed, chopped finely

2 tbsp Olive oil

1/4 lemon, zested

2 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 Macintosh apple, cored and chopped

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 lemon, juiced

1 cup spinach leaves

First wash leek slices very carefully by filling a large bowl (or a clean sink) with cold water and dropping in leek slices. Swirl leeks around in water and then let them come to a complete stop, allowing the grit and dirt to sink to the bottom. Scoop out leeks, drain water, refill with cold water, repeat until leeks have no grit left! You may need to gently separate leeks to allow stubborn dirt to come out.

Next, add 1 tbsp of oil to a large skillet and cook leeks over m/h heat for 5-7 minutes. The leeks should be pretty tender, move half of the leeks to a bowl. Add sausage chunks and a bit of the lemon zest. Cook until all of the sausage is cooked through. Use a rubber scraper to move all of the filling to another bowl and add half of the goat cheese.

Heat the rest of the olive oil (1 tbsp) in the same large skillet. Place the cooked leeks back into the skillet and add the chopped apple, the cider, the lemon juice and zest. Cook until the liquid has evaporated. Move the filling to one side of the skillet, add the rest of the goat cheese.

Turn the heat to low. Return the sausage filling to other side of the skillet. Place spinach leaves in center of pan to wilt. Cover skillet until sausage filling is reheated and spinach is wilted. The goat cheese should be somewhat melted.

(The best idea is to let the fillings warm over low heat while cooking the crepes (procedure above), as seen here!)

Now, assemble the crepes by placing a crepe on a plate, add a spoonful of whatever filling (or mix them!) and a few wilted spinach leaves to the very middle of the crepe, and fold one side over the filling, then the other side.

Matt asked if the folding was like a fajita or burrito and I told him that crepes are french! Therefore, the fold is far more delicate and fancy than anything Mexican. Think of it like a silk robe, where each side covers just enough of what is inside that some is still peeking out.

This was a really fun recipe to make. We used to have crepes fairly often as a brunch of breakfast item but it is definitely something we got away from, and I am glad to have it back. The actual crepe part of this recipe is super fast and easy and then you get to be creative with the filling. The fillings can be as complex or simple as you want. A very simple filling would be chopped lunch meat and cheese. I'm glad we didn't just choose to have potato leek soup (although we have lots of different kinds of potatoes from the CSA and it would have been delicious) because this was really fun to make and eat!