what’s cooking wednesday: turkey with sauteed peppers & onions

21 CommentsWednesday • June 6, 2007 • by michelle

Before we get to this week’s What’s Cooking Wednesday, a little background.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but for Thanksgiving last year, P got three turkeys to raise ourselves so we’d be assured of a good bird come Turkey Day. For those who don’t know, turkey isn’t commonly found in Italian butchershops, and although it can be specially ordered, you often end up with a truly enormous bird (just ask Cyndi if you don’t believe me).

Well just before that fateful Thursday, a fox got in and snatched one of our birds. So with only a female and male left, we let them be and ate chicken instead. Then another turkey was snatched, and P just let the other one get all big and meaty, figuring we might as well get our euros’ worth once slaughter time came.

So a couple months ago, when P got around to killing and cleaning our last surviving turkey, he put half of its enormous breast (this was a truly huge turkey, probably 25-30 pounds or 11-14 kilos) in the freezer. Now I’m sure many of you know that this means that once that section was defrosted, I’d have to cook all of it off within a day or so.

So I grilled some, made some turkey cutlets, and then I played around with a new recipe that I invented because I had a craving for peppers.

I put the experiment on the table.

P tried it.

He didn’t say anything.

He didn’t so much as make a face one way or the other.

I thought he’d be great at poker, and then I got nervous.

Me: “Dimmi qualcosa!” (Tell me something!)

P: “Chista è sua morte.”

Literally translated, this is dialect for “This is his death,” but what it means is that this is the way that turkey should be cooked–that it was delicious.

Phew!

As for our turkey fest, I told P it was just like having Thanksgiving in June…3 days of eating turkey! Woohoo!

Turkey with Sauteed Peppers & Onions

900 g (2 lbs) turkey cut into chunks
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
a few sprigs rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil2 large green peppers, cut into strips
2 medium onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon salt
olive oil as necessary

Coat pieces of turkey in garlic powder and salt, sprinkling rosemary about. I let this sit for a few minutes while I cut the peppers and onions, and it worked well.

Now heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a pan (medium heat) and add turkey. Be sure to cook on all sides until no longer pink, then remove turkey from pan (leaving most of the oil/juice) and set aside. Cover to keep warm.

Add peppers to the pan and cook until just tender, about five minutes, and then add onions and cook until they are both the consistency you prefer. Add salt and more olive oil to pan as needed (if you find that peppers and onions are sticking, for instance, add some oil). Note that you’ll need to stir these quite a bit while they’re cooking.

Finally add in the cooked turkey and let the flavors mingle together for a few minutes.

I recommend serving hot and with crusty bread. I’d normally say this serves four, but it really only served us two.

Even poverina Luna was left out of the fun.

Buon appetito!

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