Turkey Agrodolce

Sorry its taken me so long to post anything after the holidays.  I've been cooking plenty, but haven't had time to sit down and write.  I'm not sure if it was writer's block or laziness or what, I was just lacking inspiration I guess.

This post is a little late, and by a little, I mean like 2 months.  This is the last of the Thanksgiving-Turkey-Overload recipes.  It was super-simple and was a perfect use of some of the last of the leftovers, namely turkey and cranberry sauce.  

Agrodolce is a traditional Italian sweet (dolce) and sour (agro) sauce.  The dolce is my favorite part, especially "la dolce vita".  In fact, dolce is so important to me that my nickname for my bike is "Vita", because riding around this great city in the summer truly is "the good life".

I created this dish because I would have had a nervous breakdown if I opened the fridge and saw anything related to Thanksgiving one more day.  Luckily, this finished the turkey AND the cranberry sauce off.

Ingredients

1 C leftover turkey, shredded or chopped into bite-sized pieces

3/4 C  leftover cranberry sauce (whole berry)

2-3 tbsp of honey (depending on how sweet your cranberry sauce is)

1 bay leaf

1/2 C balsamic vinegar

1/4 C red wine

1 medium shallot, diced

1 tbsp butter

salt and pepper, to taste

Pappardelle pasta, cooked al dente

Get ready for how easy this is:

1.  Cook the shallot until soft in a lightly oiled pan, about 3min.  

2.  Add the turkey, cranberry sauce, honey bay leaf, vinegar and red wine to the shallot and turkey mixture.  Let this cook low-n-slow, about 20min.  My turkey was mostly dark meat so this worked great, if you are using white meat you might want to add the turkey to the sauce a little later to prevent it from getting tough.

3. Taste your sauce, does it need something?  If so, add it (you love those vague directions dontcha?)

4. Top the cooked pasta with the turkey-cranberry agrodolce and ring the bell 'cuz its dinner time.

Boyfriend and I really enjoyed eating this, it was tart and sweet and different.  I enjoyed cooking it because I really didn't have to do anything.  I especially loved cooking this because IT USED UP ALL THE LEFTOVERS YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!