Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Baked Artichoke Dip and leftover ideas

This is a two for one post, I will show you how I made baked artichoke dip for the super bowl and then used the leftovers for a quick weeknight pasta dinner.


This could not be easier...


Assemble your ingredients.


I have this great plunger style measuring cup thanks to my sister's efforts with Pampered Chef. It really is useful when you are working with things like honey, peanut butter and mayo.


You pull the plunger down to the appropriately marked measurment and load it full of your food stuff


Press the plunger up from the bottom and give it a scrape! So easy!


I had never worked with canned artichokes before. They are very wet and even after draining the can I gave each one a squeeze to get out the excess moisture.


If you have a mini chopper you can certainly use it. As this was the first time working with the artichokes I really wanted to hand chop them to get a feel for their texture and firmness, etc.


Everything into a bowl and mix it up!


I made this a few hours ahead of time and just dropped it in my small dutch oven


and into the fridge it went until 20 minutes before serving.

I preheated the oven and popped it in for 20 minutes and it came out gooey, bubbly and delicious.


I served it with tortilla chips. The SO tried it but did not like it so I ended up with leftovers. I realized there was no reason why this could not be revived on a little bit of pasta so when I got home from work Monday that is just what I made.


I got the water on


dragged out the leftover dip


I threw in some more of the specialty pasta my sister got me and then mixed it all up once the pasta was done. Reserve a tiny bit of pasta water to mix in if it doesn't combine nicely.




It was VERY good and so fast and easy.



I drank this during the big game...

super bowl drinks

Did you make anything good for the game or have something good to drink?

8 comments:

  1. I've made this artichoke dip for years. Yes, I'm the only one who eats it...Scott wouldn't touch it w/ a 10 foot pole. Sometimes I add spinach too.

    But I have never tried the leftovers with pasta. Genius!! How perfect. That idea is going into the mental rolodex for sure.

    We grilled chicken for the SB. It was almost 70 degrees! I've missed my grill so much...it was nice to have it back even for a few days.

    Jen

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  2. I made stuffed shells for my niece's birthday party last night and I got a bug up my butt and put chopped up artichoke in the ricotta mixture... I must have caught your artichoke heart brain waves. OMG YUMM!!!!!

    Patience

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  3. Artichoke dip is my fav...never thought to do the whole pasta thing tho'. Thanks for the tip!

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  4. That dip looks good. I might have to try it. We are making the tomato soup for dinner again. I didn't watch the game so nothing was made for it.

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  5. Oooh, I wonder about adding spinach to this so it's like the stuff I usually get at Green Mill! Mmmmmm... we got a pizza and had sodas so nothing too fancy for the game. :)

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  6. Love your blog - Thankfully my SO is adventurous, but I run in to similar portion problems with 'family-style' recipes (we don't have kids). You've given me some great ideas outside of my normal cooking realm - I tend to gravitate to Italian FAR too frequently, so I'm looking forward to trying some of your Asian inspired dishes. I was hoping you'd start showcasing some of your own recipes, and this lovely pasta dish is a great start!
    Keep up the great work and inspiration!
    P.S. I'm a Global knife girl - but the Shun looks amazing; and I love the plunger measuring cup idea. More gadget shots please!

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  7. I love that dip. I add some spinach too mine sometimes, too, and keep it warm in my mini crockpot. I need to remember the pasta thing if I ever have any leftover.

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  8. I adore Baked Artichoke Dip and yours looks particularly yummy! Will give it a try.

    I also like to use pasta as the base from which to use up other leftovers. Take, for example: Artichoke Hearts, Prosciutto, Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Fettuccine
    http://wp.me/puWta-9P

    Box of pasta, few half empty jars of artichokes and tomatoes, a glug of cream, a dash of Parmesan and we're in business!

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