So I tried both versions of the homemade "Bertolli"

[MissMillie]

yes, I was inspired by Top Chef, and a couple of weekends ago I made my own homemade Bertolli.

One version was just pasta and meatballs. I used penne for the pasta, made my usual spaghetti sauce and froze it in ice cube trays, and made a batch of really tiny meatballs. One lb of pasta. Froze everything separate.

The other version I used chicken breast sauteed in olive oil w/ fresh rosemary, cooked spinach and mushrooms in garlic, and made a sauce with chicken stock and a rue, and added petite diced tomatoes. Rotini pasta--1 lb. Again, froze everything separate.

I got two big freezer bags of each batch.

Both versions were quite good. I think I could have added a little more sauce to each of these, but over all, not bad at all.

And VERY convenient, as well as much cheaper than the store-bought.

I'll do it again.

[bicentennial_baby]

1. Excellent!

Thanks for the report! I'll have to try this! :bounce:

:hi:

[MissMillie]

2. just a heads up

one ice cube tray full of frozen sauce is not enough for 1/2 lb. of pasta


I would use 1 1/4 to 1 1/3 trays of frozen sauce

[lizziegrace]

3. MissMille!

Those sound wonderful. Do you have a recipe for the chicken?
:)

[MissMillie]

4. sure

I cooked the 1 lb. of rotini , drained it, and separated it onto 2 cookie sheets and put into the freezer

While the pasta was cooking, I cut up a couple of boneless chicken breasts and seasoned them w/ salt and rosemary.

When the pasta made it to the freezer, I heated a skillet w/ some olive oil and cooked the chicken. I saved the liquid in the pan.

I spread the chicken onto a shallow pan and put it into the freezer.

Then I cleaned a bag of spinach and sliced up some mushrooms. I sauteed that in the skillet w/ some olive oil and some salt & pepper.

I made sure I strained all of the liquid out (a good squeeze in the strainer) of it and then I again put that in a shallow pan and into the freezer.


(by the time the spinach was done, the pasta was ready to bag, I put half of the pasta into one freezer bag and half into another)


then I made a rue w/ butter, olive oil and flour... and I added the reserved liquid (and additional chicken stock as needed) to make a chicken gravy.... and I added about 1/3 of a small can of petite diced tomatoes. I poured this into 2 ice cube trays and into the freezer.

(by then, the chicken could be divided in half and put into the two freezer bags)

when the spinach & mushrooms were frozen, I divided that in half and put that into the two freezer bags

and then when the sauce was frozed I added one tray of frozen sauce into each bag.


This took about 10 to 15 minutes to heat in a covered skillet (on medium high heat) and it's enough for two adults w/ VERY healty
appetites

(edited because I posted before I was finished!)

[lizziegrace]

5. Thank you!

I'm printing this off. :hug: