Cheesy Turkey Casserole
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Planning, prepping, cooking and serving a large holiday meal is a challenging undertaking, but coming up with creative and tasty ways to use the leftovers? Um, hello scary. I find a fridge full of leftovers intimidating and a lot of the time our tasty odds and ends from big dinners languish in the fridge just to be tossed out a few days later. I know, it’s terrible – I hate to even admit it.
Part of the problem is the amount of food we cook. For example, we piled our table high with all sorts of dishes for Christmas dinner – enough to feed a small army. In planning I try to limit the amount of sides, but inevitably I end up with all sorts of stuff because “we have to have this” or “we can’t have Christmas dinner without that”. Especially now that we are merging two cultures together – Steve likes to have his traditional English Christmas dishes and I have a few American must-haves, as well. That’s how you end up with three kinds of potatoes. It gets a little out of hand.
So now we have a fridge of leftovers, but I refuse to be intimidated by them this time. We’ve already had a few rounds of sandwiches and I made an awesome “turkey bowl” – mashed potatoes topped with veggies, cheese, turkey, and a dollop of cranberry sauce. So we’re making progress – the goal is to use it all up.
Next on the list? Cheesy Turkey Casserole.
Don’t you think casseroles are the best way to use up leftovers? They’re versatile, easy to make, and can be frozen for future dinners. I made this one with the goal to use as much as possible without making it a freak show of ingredients – leftover turkey, pancetta, yorkshire puddings, spinach, and a block of cheese all found their way into this and all together it tasted delicious.
It all starts with a simple cheddar cheese sauce and to it you add the leftover turkey, spinach, some herbs, and tiny bit of dijon mustard. Then you mix in the pasta and pour it all into a baking dish. But, wait, there’s more! I had quite a few yorkshire puddings leftover, so I popped those into my brand new handy-dandy Cuisinart food processor (thanks, Santa!) and ground them up into breadcrumbs. Don’t have yorkshire puddings sitting around? It’s okay – just use whatever type of bread you have hanging around. After sprinkling the breadcrumbs over the top I added some crispy pancetta (bacon works, too!) and a bit more shredded cheddar. After about 40ish minutes in the oven it came out hot, bubbly, and cheesy. We each devoured a bowlful for lunch and then I wrapped up the remainder to store in the freezer to reheat for dinner on a busy weeknight. Done and done. Thank you, leftovers!
- 8 ounces short pasta (I used mezze penne)
- 4 ounces diced pancetta
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1¼ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh herb mix (I used parsley and thyme)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1½ cup grated cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 cup fresh spinach
- 1 cup roasted turkey, cubed
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
- In a small pan cook the pancetta over medium heat until crispy. Remove from the pan and let it drain on paper towels
- Boil pasta for half the recommended time listed on the package, drain and set aside
- In the same pot that the pasta was cooked in, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the garlic and saute for about two minutes
- Add the two tablespoons of flour to the garlic and butter and whisk to combine. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes
- Add the milk and whisk until smooth. Allow it to cook for several minutes until it starts to thicken
- While it’s thickening, add in the chopped herbs, salt, pepper, and dijon
- Once the white sauce has thickened, add 1 cup of the grated cheddar and whisk until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, dilute it with a splash of milk
- Add the fresh spinach, turkey, and cooked pasta to the cheese mixture, stir to combine
- Pour the mixture into a 8×8 square baking dish
- Top with the remaining ½ cup of grated cheese, breadcrumbs, and crispy pancetta
- Cover the dish with tin foil and bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the tin foil and continue baking for another 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese on top has melted.
- Let stand a few minutes before serving
The post Cheesy Turkey Casserole appeared first on Girl Gone Gourmet.
Source: http://www.girlgonegourmet.com/2014/12/cheesy-turkey-casserole.html
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