Oo-er, Saucy..!

Frozen chicken livers.  Not a phrase that immediately suggests anything terribly exciting but, man, I love these babies.  I keep a couple of cartons in the freezer most of the time; quick pâtes, warm salads and this delicious, hearty pasta dish need be barely more than a defrost away.  Satisfyingly, everything else for this recipe is readily available from the storecupboard and the garden so, as long as I remember to take the livers out of the freezer in the morning, supper can be a pretty fast construction, which is always good on a school night, isn't it? As a (slightly defensive) aside, yes, I know that a whole 500g pack of spaghetti is a trifle excessive for two adults and two children but it's lush and we're greedy.  In any case, my hubby can always be relied upon to relish any leftovers for his midnight 'lunch'.  Odd, yes, but this is the life of a night-worker...


Spaghetti with Saucy Chicken Livers

500g spaghetti
20g butter
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, peeled, quartered and sliced
large sprig rosemary, needles chopped
2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
2x 227g cartons frozen chicken livers, defrosted
50ml dry sherry
150ml milk
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
handful fresh parsley, chopped

Cook the spaghetti in a pan of salted boiling water.  Meanwhile, melt the butter and oil together in a large pan and fry the onion with the rosemary until the onion is softened.  Toss the livers in the seasoned flour and add all this to the pan.  Fry until the livers are browned, then pour in the sherry.  Sizzle, sizzle, then pour in the milk and stir well to scrape up all the floury bits.  Mix in the mustard and bubble while the sauce thickens.  Stir in the parsley.  Drain the pasta, saving about 100ml of the water.  Toss the sauce through the drained pasta, then deglaze the liver cooking pan with the reserved pasta water and stir this through also.  Serve, without the addition of cheese, I feel.

Now to plan for the May Day bank holiday weekend...  I feel a bit of a kitchen frenzy coming on, hooray!

Cath xx