Birthday Dinner Menu

For Andrew's b-day dinner gathering, we went with Italian. I love Italian food as much as the next person, but I love the fresh, light dishes much more than the heavy cream sauces.  We chose a penne pasta with a vodka sauce for one dish and the other was chicken scampi. I like Olive Garden's scampi, but it is usually a pit to oily and buttery for me. I found this recipe and it was delish! Like, maybe it was my favorite thing I have ever made.
It takes a bit of time, but if you like this kind of dish, it is totally worth the work.

So here is the recipe.  You can also find the recipe here.  I made a few slight changes.
It easily makes food for 4.

WHITE SAUCE

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup milk , hot

SCAMPI SAUCE

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh garlic , crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tablespoon dried cilantro (optional)
• 2 teaspoons italian seasoning
• black pepper
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 cup chicken broth

REMAINING INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 lb angel hair pasta , cooked and drained
• 1 green and one red pepper , thinly sliced
• 1 red onion , thinly sliced
• 10 garlic cloves , roasted
• 2 chicken breasts , sliced
• olive oil

Directions:

1. For white sauce: Heat 1 tablespoons butter in sauce pan, add 2 tablespoons flour and cook for 2 minutes on med. heat. heat stirring constantly. slowly add 3/4 cup hot milk (hot so it won't get lumpy). Set aside. (Make sure that the white sauce is hot when adding to the scampi sauce). I had problems getting the lumps out, so I put the whole sauce in the Magic bullett and processed it, it was AMAZINGLY SMOOTH! 
2. For scampi sauce: Heat butter over low heat. add the garlic, Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper and black pepper. cook for about 2 minutes on low heat. add the wine and chicken broth. stir until combined. (I simmered for about 30-40 minutes). add 1/4 cup white sauce and cook till slightly thickened. Again, I had lumps so it went back in the magic bullet. 
3. ROASTED GARLIC: peel all the outside peel/paper off the head of garlic. cut at the point for an easy release of each clove. rub the opening with a little evoo. wrap in foil. bake on 400 for 30-35 minutes. when the garlic has cooled to the touch you should be able to squeeze it out of the 'paper' shell of the individual cloves.
4. In a large skillet, saute chicken in a little olive till nearly done. add the peppers and onions, saute till chicken is done. add the sauce. saute until everything is warmed. add roasted garlic cloves. serve over pasta.

1. The Pasta will have a nice thin coat of sauce...and it is so good!
   
   

We also had::
 a Caprese - fresh roma tomatoes, fresh Mozzerella, and Basil with a little EVOO and some sea salt.
Bread and dipping sauce
an olive tray with different olives
two green salads


And btw, Italian is the way to go, because leftovers are AWESOME! 


have a great day!

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/olive-garden-chicken-scampi-yummy-copycat-179336#ixzz1kJRQRrle