Ducks Mahal

(Note: Leftover turkey can also be used as a substitute for chicken. In this recipe, 2 to 3 cups will suffice)

This is an American-Italian dish named after Italian born opera star Luisa Tetrazzini. This dish is thought to be invented in San Francisco where she lived a long time, some also claim its origin to NYC. Regardless, it is a standard in Ron’s kitchen.

I have cooked many pasta dishes, some with an egg yolk added for thickness. Instead, this one folds in a light roux to strengthen the base. This one also has a few sauce tricks. By all accounts, it’s really a casserole only fancier and while this isn’t your Mama’s mac and cheese, if you like mac and cheese, you’ll dig it all the more.

Some Tetrazzini recipes call for almonds. I have yet to add one almond to this dish because I think almonds are dumb in this recipe. I was once in a sushi bar in San Francisco and asked the chef to drop a raw quail egg in my beer. He said, “No.” I asked why. He said, “Because it’s dumb.” A cook has to draw the line somewhere. No telling what you will see before your very eyes if you don’t control the ingredient. Feature this, here you are mashing soft pasta and soft chicken and then you run into an almond? It’s like something fell in the pot when you weren’t looking, like a stove knob. And there you are grinding on an almond looking like a camel and you know, I don’t like to watch people eat almonds. That kind of stuff should be done in the privacy of one’s home. And I really hate when folks pull things from their mouth while eating, like bones and junk. I once watched a girl gruffle a pork rib with her Congo lips. It looked like two caterpillars humping up and down a rib bone. I cook stuff to go in, not to come out. Now, I love watching my wife lick an ice cream cone but draw the line at a spoon full of ice cream inserted, then dragged out excavating the top layer and watching that repeated several times until the spoon is licked clean to the silver. I’d rather watch someone pull their dentures and leave them on the table than watch that. Aside from that, I have few other peeves.

Oh, one more peeve. For goodness shakes, before serving a salad, please cut the lettuce into bight size pieces. I hate watching someone suck down a big ole lettuce leaf like a sea turtle. The rule is, the way the salad is served is the way it has to be eaten. It is considered bad manners to prepare your food at the table in advance of eating. We call that courtesy cooking.

There is a lot of stuff in Italian dishes. This recipe has lots of stuff too and it works, real good it works.

Prepare in advance:

1 Lb. chicken tenders, deboned and deskined and cut into bite size pieces
1 ½ cup of chicken stock
1 carrot, shredded on a cheese grader
1 medium onion chopped
1 dash of dried parsley
.5 tsp. thyme
Salt to taste
3 TBSP butter
3 TBSP flour
3 oz. of light cream
1 cup or more of shredded Five Italian cheeses (Kraft is good) Something with at least three cheese, Parmesan, provolone, mozzarella, (romano, asiago)
1 cup of sliced mushrooms (I use canned here)
6 oz. fettuccini pasta cooked
1 shot sweet sherry
1 tsp. paprika

In a small sauce pan combine chicken, chicken stock, onion, carrot, parsley, thyme and salt. Boil gently 30 minutes. Not necessary to sauté veggies first. Strain the stock and set aside. Save the chicken and veggies in a bowl.

While that is going on prepare the fettuccine, cook to an al dente state. Cover, turn off heat and leave in water until it goes in the casserole dish. It will cook a little more on its own.

In another sauce pan melt the butter and add the flour and stir. Keep stirring as it heats for about five minutes on medium heat, add the saved chicken stock and the cream, stir, add the sherry, stir and cook for about five minutes on medium to low heat. Stir in the cheese and get smooth. If the heat is too high, you can turn the cheese into cottage cheese. Then add the chicken, the veggies, the mushrooms and let cook for about another three minutes or so on medium heat. The idea is enough heat to gently blend and cook but not scald.

Preheat oven to 350.

Drain pasta and add to a buttered casserole dish. Use a pasta spoon and spoon in the desired amount. There should be a balance of pasta to the rest of the ingredients; you might not use it all. Pour in all the remaining ingredients with the sauce, chicken and veggies over the pasta. Sprinkle the top with a little more cheese, and sprinkle on the paprika. Bake covered 20 to 30 minutes.

Serves 4

Gotta love it Luisa. D. S. al coda baby!