I tend to just make up recipes, don’t measure out ingredients and promptly forget not long after eating exactly how something came together. So before I forget, here’s a quick and easy pheasant pasta that we cooked up on a whim. Total prep time was around 30 minutes.
Ingredients:
4 pheasant breasts (or combination breasts and thighs)
1/2 Bottle White Wine — be sure it’s something you like to drink too
6 Cloves Garlic
Parsley
Grated Parmesan Cheese
3/4 Stick of Butter
Flour (a few tablespoons)
Half n Half, or cream
Salt, Pepper
Your Favorite Pasta (we used spinach pasta)
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First, get your pasta water salted and boiling so that you aren’t waiting for your pasta to cook once you finish the sauce.
On a cutting board pound out your pheasant to a uniform thickness. This helps tenderize tough birds – cover with plastic wrap to keep the mess to a minimum. Next, cut your pheasant across grain in thin strips – think clam size since the inspiration of this recipe is Linguine and Clam Sauce. Mince the garlic gloves and a good handful of the parsley just so you have all the knife work done.
Place a large skillet on the stove on high heat and begin melting the butter. Once it is good and hot, slide the pheasant in and begin sautéing. When the meat is cut into this strips like this, it really takes very little time to cook through. Cooking in butter helps keep lean pheasant moist. Add the garlic, salt, pepper and stir. Once your meat is cooked through, sprinkle enough floor into the pan to soak up the remaining butter when mixed – won’t take much, maybe a few tablespoons. We’re using the flour as a thickener.
Now pop the cork on that wine and add about a half bottle, stirring into the meat mixture. Once it comes back up to temperature, you’ll get a good idea of how thick your sauce is. Add more wine if it’s too thick for your liking. Add the handful of parsley and let some of the alcohol continue to burn off. I like creamy sauces that coat the noodles, so here’s where I included a liberal splash of half-n-half. Finally add the grated parmesan – how much really depends on how cheesy you like it, but 1/4 cup is a good starting place.
Your pasta should be drained and ready to plate. Give your sauce a taste first for seasoning, add pepper and salt as needed. Then spoon a generous helping over your pasta. Garlic bread would be a great addition. Enjoy!