Thanksgiving ReMix - Turkey Cranberry and Ricotta Stuffed Shells

My fab hubs came up with this one night and it sounded so good we used up the last remains of our turkey to make this. It was delicious. Creamy, meaty, savory, sweet, spiced. Yum!

Ingredients:

4 oz. roasted turkey breast, shredded or sliced very thin
1/2 c. cranberry sauce
1 1/2 c. Ricotta cheese (we used Ricotta Salata rehydrated to have the traditional Ricotta consistency)
18 Jumbo Shells
salt and pepper
nutmeg

Mix the turkey with the cranberry sauce and Ricotta cheese. Add a pinch of nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste.

Boil the pasta shells in a pot of salted water until al dente.

Fill the shells with the filling and place in a shallow oven-safe pan lined with gravy.

Top with the gravy (recipe below) and pecorio romano, bake in a 350 F oven until the cheese browns and bubbles - about 30 minutes.

Gravy

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 shallot or 1/8 sweet onion, diced fine
2 tbsp all purpose flour
1 c. turkey stock
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp heavy cream
pinch nutmeg
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook until the onions are transparent. Stir in the all purpose flour and mix to combine with the butter. Gradually add in the stock. Whisk to combine the stock with the rue. Add in the parsley and cream, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until desired consistency.

Thanksgiving ReMix - Turkey Cranberry Ravioli

I actually started this blog with a link to this recipe, but I feel like it's good enough to post twice, and my first blog post ever kinda sucked. This year I made a few changes to the original recipe, mainly adding more cranberry and making six times the quantity. To freeze of course, so we can enjoy the Thanksgiving day flavor these provide into the New Year.

Ingredients (makes 100 ravioli):

1 1/2 pound roasted turkey, shredded, preferably dark meat

16 tablespoons cranberry sauce

16 tablespoons grated Romano

6 tablespoon bread crumbs

6 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves

4 egg

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 

1 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 recipes pasta dough (as listed here)

Start by mixing the turkey, cranberry, cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, egg, salt and pepper together in a large bowl.

Next, make the pasta dough. Cut the larger dough ball into about 6 - 8 smaller balls so that it is easier to roll out sheets of pasta.

Fill each ravioli with 1 tbsp of the filling.

Pinch each ravioli shut, making sure to release any air bubbles, and cut.

You can make fresh by boiling in a salted pot of water, or freeze individually on a cookie sheet (and later place in a zip top bag) for an easy, tasty meal later.

Serve with this gravy or a traditional turkey gravy.

Thanksgiving ReMix - Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's Pie was an easy recipe to think of - the amount of leftovers this recipe used was amazing. We used half a turkey breast, turkey stock, gravy, 2 cups mashed potatoes, two carrots, 3 ribs of celery, 3 turnips, 1 white onion, thyme and mushrooms - all of which we had floating around in the fridge from either our Thanksgiving dinner or from making our vegetable stock (which was made for Thanksgiving). Our refrigerator breathed a sigh of relief as we unloaded crisper drawers and tupperware containers.

The recipe we used was based on this recipe. We made a few changes based on our leftover situation, but isn't that the point of these types of recipe - to use up all the mis-matched ingredients you have on hand? So, you can use this as inspiration and throw in whatever else you may be needed to use from your fridge. Ours turned out a bit on the runny side, so in hindsight, I would sub butter for olive oil and use 2 tbsp with 2 tbsp flour so that the rue was thicker, but other than that, the flavor was awesome. We will be keeping this recipe for use with next year's leftovers.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped white onion

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

3 celery ribs, chopped

1/4 tsp Essence (see Emeril's recipe for it here) 

2 pinch salt

pinch of ground black pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 tsp thyme leaves (we used dried)

 6 oz. mushrooms, stemmed, cleaned and sliced

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp flour

1/3 c. tomato sauce

2 1/2 c. roasted turkey breast, meat shredded

1 1/4 c. turkey stock (you could use chicken)

2 cups leftover mashed potatoes, mixed with blended turnips

3 turnips, boiled and blended with immersion blender 

1/4 c. Manchego cheese

1 c. grated Goat's milk Cheddar

1/2 c. leftover gravy 

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or saute pan. Saute the onion, carrots and celery with the Essence, salt and pepper.

Once the onions are clear and tender, toss in the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds to a minute. Then toss in the mushroom, thyme and bay leaf.

Once the mushrooms have wilted, toss in the flour and coat everything in the flour. Then add the tomato sauce and turkey breast and stir to combine. Slowly add the turkey stock and stir to combine. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Pour the mixture into a 9" x 9" pan and top with the turnip mashed potatoes. Top with the Manchego cheese (which melts into the potatoes and adds a nice buttery flavor). Top that with the Cheddar and place in a 400 F oven for about a half hour, until the potato is crisp and the cheese is bubbly and golden.  

Serve and drizzle some leftover gravy for a yummy use of all those odds and ends.

Thanksgiving ReMix - Turkey Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette

We had leftover salad and turkey. So, turkey salad was an obvious choice. The cranberry dressing makes it wonderful of course, and is another favorite that I found during that college dinner party (on Allrecipes.com).

Ingredients:
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/3 c. olive oil
1/3 c. fresh cranberries (mine was heaping!)
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tbsp water

Blend the vinegar, cranberries, mustard, garlic, salt, pepper and water in the blender or food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and blend to combine.Our salad consisted of turkey, red onion, avocado, tomato, sliced & toasted almonds, and cucumber. Delish. We served this with the stuffing stuffed mushrooms. :)

Thanksgiving ReMix - Open Faced Turkey Sandwich Bites

A Turkey Sandwich.

A post-Thanksgiving staple. We decided to switch it up from the typical cold turkey sandwich and use some of the ciabatta bread we had from Thanksgiving dinner. We spread it with some creamy peppercorn mayonaise and topped with turkey.

We toasted that in the microwave and then topped it with gravy and cranberry sauce.