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MADDIE here, with a delicious and easy Spanish dish made like risotto, in that all the cooking liquid is absorbed by the end. You can easily adapt it to be vegetarian and vegan by leaving out the anchovies and chicken.

I made this a couple of days ago so I could get the post up. I'm delighted we have leftovers, because we get our second vaccine shots today! In case I don't feel like cooking, dinner's in the fridge.

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Recipe adapted from Sheryl Juilian’s in the Boston Globe. 

Ingredients

4 tablespoons olive oil

10 ounces thin spaghetti or vermicelli, broken into 3-inch lengths (break it on a large piece of newspaper – it flies around)

1 pound mushroom, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoons tomato paste

Salt and pepper

1 cup shredded cooked chicken

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock or more

6 ounces baby spinach

 

Directions

In a Dutch oven or large soup pot on medium-high, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the broken pasta and stir constantly with tongs, turning, for 3 to 4 minutes until pasta starts to brown, Remove from heat.

 

In a large skillet on medium-high, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onions and saute for a minute. 

Add mushrooms, tomato paste, and anchovies. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook for one more minute, then stir in shredded chicken.

 

Scrape all into the pasta pot. Pour some of the stock into the skillet and use a spatula to incorporate all the juices and scraps. Add it and the rest of the stock to the pasta pot, turning it to high.

 

Bring to a boil, then lower the heat until it bubbles steadily. 

Cook, uncovered, stirring often, for about 15 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed and the pasta is tender. Stir constantly toward the end of cooking. If the pasta is too chewy, add more stock, a half cup at a time, until it is absorbed and the pasta is tender.

 Stir in half the spinach. 

 

Stir for a minute, then add the other half. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if you like. Serve hot with a green salad.

Note: When we tasted this at the table, I thought it would have benefited from a dash of hot sauce, and/or a squeeze of lemon juice.

Readers: What's your favorite Spanish food or dish from southern Europe?

My most recent book is Candy Slain Murder, the eighth Country Store mystery. As with all my books written as Maddie Day, you'll find easy recipes in the back.

The next book, out in late March, will be the wide release of Murder at the Taffy Shop, the second Cozy Capers Book Group Mystery - up for preorder now!

After that, my alter-ego has A Changing Light, our seventh Quaker Midwife Mystery releasing on April 13! It's also up for pre-order.

I hope you'll visit Edith Maxwell and me on our web site, sign up for our monthly newsletter, visit us on social media, and check our all our books and short stories.

Maddie Day (aka Edith Maxwell) is a talented amateur chef and holds a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University. An Agatha Award-winning and bestselling author, she is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America and also writes award-winning short crime fiction. She lives with her beau north of Boston, where she’s currently working on her next mystery when she isn’t cooking up something delectable in the kitchen.