Happy Birthday to Me

No! I’m not looking for gratuitous birthday wishes, so please don’t. 🙂 I want to share with you what I wanted for my birthday dinner. I had planned to pull out a bottle of 1995 Brunello di Montalcino that I had in my cellar for a few years now. I knew it was getting a bit on in age (just like me) so I it was time to open it. I was thinking all day long about making a creamy rosemary chicken pasta to go along with it. I thought something herbal and savory would be great. When I got home from work my wife had thought to plan an asian fish dinner. I thought “Ginger Soy Fish with Brunello? Um, nope – won’t work!” She didn’t mind that I went back to plan A. Dinner turned out great and I even managed to keep it on the lower fat side. I started by taking about a cup of non-fat milk and a tablespoon of flour and whisking that together well. To this was added a few tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary. I heated this on the stove while whisking until it was bubbling. I cooked it for about a minute or two until it became a nice thick white sauce. It was pretty thick as it was going to be thinned down with some chicken broth later. I cooked some whole wheat spaghetti in a pot of salted boiling water. While the pasta cooked I sautéed some boneless skinless chicken breast that had been sliced into small pieces along with some olive oil and fresh garlic. When it was just cooked but still moist and tender the chicken was taken out of the pan. In went more garlic and about a cup of cut up asparagus. This was fried for a couple of minutes and some chicken broth, about a half cup or so, was added. This was simmered just until the asparagus was softened. The thickened white sauce was added and cooked together for a few seconds. In went the chicken and then the pasta. To top it off about 2.5 oz of freshly grated parmigiano reggiano was tossed in and the pasta was plated up. It was creamy and delicious. The rosemary flavor was just perfect. I think this recipe is a keeper! If you want a more rich version you could use real cream instead of thickened skim milk. You could also add some butter to the sauce to give it more richness. But I certainly didn’t need it.