- [Sara Voiceover] "Sara's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by USA Rice and by... - [Male Narrator] Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It all started when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now I transmit it to all the guests as something made especially for them.

- [Female Narrator] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

(inspiring music) ♪ Inside out ♪ Gotta figure it out ♪ I'm feeling good ♪ And it feels good to feel good ♪ - [Male Narrator] Sunsweet amazing prunes and prune juice.

- [Sara Voiceover] We know you love five ingredient meals.

Fast, simple, delicious, done.

- Wow.

That's A plus.

So today, we've got three great recipes with just five ingredients.

Well, okay.

This one has six.

- I have some leftover spaghetti from last night, but I didn't throw it out.

I'm no dummy.

I'm gonna turn this into an Italian frittata.

- [Sara Voiceover] And it's got all the good stuff.

Eggs, bacon, brie.

What's not to like?

- [Sara] Wowee zowee.

Can't wait to try it.

- [Sara Voiceover] Next up.... - My duck with braised leeks and sauerkraut, just five ingredients and it was so simple 'cause the duck was cooked and ready to go to begin with.

- [Sara Voiceover] How about some creamy angel hair pasta with peppery broccoli and feta?

- It's a fine weeknight meal for the whole clan.

- [Sara Voiceover] And on "Ask Sarah..." - I'm trying to make chicken milanese and every time I, you know, get the chicken breast out and you start to pound the chicken to make it flat, it starts to come apart.

- Okay.

I have an answer for you.

- [Sara Voiceover] Today on "Sara's Weeknight Meals."

- [Woman] Come on, my girls!

Choo choo!

- [Sara] So this is where they all graze?

- [Woman] This is where all the chickens graze.

Yes they do.

- And what size would you say these are?

- These are basically right now large.

(upbeat country music) - I have some leftover spaghetti from last night, but I didn't throw it out.

I'm no dummy.

I'm gonna turn this into the base of a meal.

I'm gonna make an Italian frittata.

An Italian frittata, the Italians would hate to hear this, is like a French omelet, except more substantial.

And I'm gonna start with bacon.

I'm gonna chop up and get cooking.

You could cook it whole and then shred it up afterwards, but I'm just sort of speeding it up this way.

And it doesn't need to be finely chopped.

What's great about a frittata, it's just like an omelet.

You can put absolutely anything in it, but I think you're gonna love this version with the spaghetti in it because it's just sort of a fun way to use up spaghetti.

A lot of people just throw out their extra pasta, which is silly.

You should never throw anything out.

Actually, this frittata could be a base for all sorts of leftovers.

And then into the pan.

Now, today, I'm using a stick-resistant pan, which is perfect for eggs.

You could use a non-stick pan.

You could even use a cast iron skillet if you want.

And I'm just getting it in there and then I'm turning on the heat.

And it's gonna take about six minutes or so.

We just want it to get nice and crispy.

Let me break it up a little bit.

Now, walnuts.

I love walnuts.

We need about 1/4 of a cup.

If you're not a walnut fan or if you happen to have some other nuts in house, pine nuts would be great, almonds would be fantastic.

One of my new favorites is pistachios.

I love pistachios.

A little tip about nuts is nuts and seeds, all nuts and all seeds, because they have such a high oil content can go rancid very quickly.

So I keep mine in the freezer.

I have them all in little bags.

I get rid of the air, squeeze it out.

Likewise, with nut oils and seed oils, like your sesame oil and your walnut oil, keep those in the fridge 'cause those go rancid very quickly, too.

But, you know, I've had nuts in my freezer, don't tell anybody, for quite awhile and they're really just fine.

So these chopped nuts are gonna go in a 350 degree oven for about eight to 10 minutes or until they change color and they have that wonderful toasty aroma.

Now I'm gonna do my onion.

Oh, the bacon smells good already.

You know, there's just something about bacon, that smokiness, that makes us all feel sort of cozy inside.

There we go.

And then that's all ready to go when my bacon is done.

So let me start getting all the rest of the bits.

There's many things that go into this frittata.

This is sort of a Dagwood frittata.

There's so much in there.

I'm gonna get my brie, which was very ripe and soft and wonderful, so I decided to put it in the freezer.

See, that made it firm up just enough so that I can cut it.

I'm using about six ounces of brie.

So I'm not taking off the rind.

We all know that rind is edible and although my daughter Ruthie probably would not approve, too bad.

She'll never know.

Alrighty.

Gonna bring this down.

Everything's gonna eventually go in my egg bowl.

So, speaking of eggs, let me get my eggs going here.

These are large eggs.

I love eggs because, you know, if you have eggs in the fridge, you can make so many different dishes from them.

Now, if you have a garden out back, you probably already know this, that egg shells are very good fertilizer.

At my parents' farmhouse, we have compost.

And one of the things that we're never allowed to throw out are eggshells.

So I'm gonna beat my eggs with a little bit of pepper.

It's coarse, but who cares?

I like a little bit of freshly ground pepper in there.

And some salt.

And something I just learned, again, is it helps if you break the yolk before you start beating the egg.

It seems to beat up faster.

I think my bacon's just about ready.

Now we're gonna cook the onion in the fat left in the pan.

You could dump some of the fat off if you wanted to.

So here goes the onion.

And we can cook these real quickly.

You know, there's two different ways to brown onions.

One is low and slow and the other one is just sort of fast and get it charred at the edges.

It's up to you how you're feeling.

So while these brown up, I'm gonna add the brie to my eggs, and then...

Firmed up a little bit.

Now, I can't forget the star of the show, which is my spaghetti.

Now, you know when you cook spaghetti or any kind of pasta and you drain it and park it overnight, sometimes it becomes one.

So let's see.

If it does become one, I have a little trick so that you can sort of loosen it up for your frittata.

Wow.

This is really quite loose, but let's say it did get all gummy.

What I would do is just put it in a strainer and then dip it in some boiling water just real quick just to loosen it up, but it's in great shape.

So there we go.

Into my eggs.

Now I'm gonna add the bacon.

Now I'm gonna take out my walnuts.

Oh, those look good.

Those won't take any time at all.

Another stir on my onions and then talk about kale for a second.

Actually, I'm gonna say those are done.

So here we go.

In goes the onions.

And what the heck, I'm gonna add the walnuts.

You could let 'em cool a little longer.

The only reason for that is when they're hot, they absorb liquid quickly, they might sog up faster, but it doesn't really matter.

You could also, frankly, save the walnuts and just sprinkle 'em on top when you're all done.

It's up to you.

So now back into the pan, we are going to put our egg mixture.

Let me just toss it up one more time.

Boy, that looks good all by itself, doesn't it?

It's a rather dense omelet because of all this pasta in there.

So this takes about four or five minutes to set.

You know, you can lift it up a little bit.

My mom taught me this about when you make a regular omelet, you sort of lift up the sides.

You let the runny stuff go underneath.

It doesn't seem to be too much runny stuff down there.

So let me just get that started.

And then I'm gonna come on down here and make a kale salad.

Now kale is the it vegetable of the day because it is so healthy.

It's got more iron than some meat, it's got more calcium per volume than milk.

It's the super vegetable!

We got three different versions of it here.

This is the Tuscan dinosaur, and then this is the red, and this is the regular curly.

The trouble with kale, I mean, there's no trouble, it's wonderful, you can cook it and it can be tough, so you just cook it a little longer.

But to eat it raw, which is what we've got here is some beautiful shredded kale, You need to massage it to soften it.

So, I'm going to add a little bit of oil and a little bit of salt, but then I'm gonna literally mush this up with my hands and what that does is just the physical massaging really tenderizes the kale.

So I'm gonna be right back.

Just pop this into the broiler.

You wanna have the heat source, not exactly right next to the broiler 'cause you don't wanna get it too burnt.

Gonna get good and dirty.

This is sort of fun.

So you get your hands in there and you just smush it, and smush it, and smush it.

And what happens is it not only gets tender, it gets translucent.

See how it's already beginning to glisten?

And I'm gonna put a little bit of lemon juice in it.

It's not too much lemon.

We don't wanna overwhelm the olive oil.

Isn't that beautiful?

Really, I think you should make this part of the weekly lineup.

It's such a great side salad.

Let me check my frittata.

It should be nice and golden by now.

Ooh, yes.

Gotta remember to be careful with that handle.

Ooh, yum.

Look at that.

Woo!

Yes.

I'm gonna do this 'cause this is a stick-resistant pan and I do not wanna scratch it.

Wow.

That looks so delicious.

I think this is gonna be quite the crowd pleaser.

So there we go.

I'm gonna put a little kale salad next to it and that makes a beautiful dinner.

Wowee zowee.

Can't wait to try it.

- [Sara Voiceover] My brie, bacon, and spaghetti frittata.

- So I get a lot of questions to my website.

One that pops up a lot has to do with chicken, so I'm going to address that today with Andrew from Manhattan.

Hi Andrew.

- Hi Sarah.

How are you?

- [Sara] Good.

How are you?

- I'm well, thanks.

- So, before we get started, so you live in Manhattan.

What do you do?

- I work for an antique store that's based here in London, so wonderful 18th century antiques.

- So tell me your question.

- So my question is I'm trying to make chicken milanese and every time I, you know, get the chicken breasts out and you start to pound the chicken to make it flat, it starts to come apart.

- [Sara] It shreds.

- And I'm wondering how, you know, when you go to a great Italian restaurant where they have it there, it's not, you know, in shreds.

- Yes, this is true.

Okay.

I have an answer for you.

I'm just gonna use this resealable bag.

If you put water in the bag or on the chicken, the chicken doesn't stick to the plastic and that's what makes it shred, is when it's sticking.

So I've got a piece of fairly thin chicken.

Try to get something that's thin to begin with, but for milanese, it has to be quite thin.

And then you just take your, I'm gonna use a rolling pin here.

You see?

The chicken's moving around.

It's not sticking.

I'm gonna show you what it looks like.

And you know, for milanese, you might wanna start with a bigger piece of chicken 'cause you want something that sort of fits on the plate, but you can see that it stayed together.

- Fantastic.

- Let me just lay it on the counter.

Very nicely.

You know, it's a little bit thinner here, but what's good about it is especially 'cause it didn't rip in the middle, when it cooks, it all comes back together.

That's the great thing about protein.

So try this little trick using the bag and the water and then you won't have the ripping.

So there you go.

- Thank you very much.

- I see milanese in your future.

- I hope so.

(upbeat country music) - I just love duck confit.

It's one of my all-time favorite things.

What it is is duck from Southwest of France that has been spiced and seasoned and then left to marinate for several days and then cooked low and slow in duck fat.

It is so delicious, but it's time-consuming.

So you can imagine how thrilled I was to find it online already prepared.

So, the first thing I do is I separate out the fat and the juice 'cause those are gonna be used in the recipe.

And here are my duck legs.

So I'm gonna get started.

We're gonna recrust them first and then finish cooking them in the oven and then I'm gonna add all these other wonderful ingredients.

So, let me start by getting my ducks in the cold pan and it's gonna crisp up with some of this duck fat that I saved.

Let me get them in the pan and talk a little bit about duck and duck fat.

So, skin side down, we want crispy skin.

That's one of the things we love about duck confit.

And if I need more fat, I'll add it, but the skin's gonna give off even more fat.

So turning it on to medium and we're just gonna let that crisp away, and pretty soon, it's gonna start talking to us.

We'll hear all these crackling noises.

So while that is crisping up, I'm gonna get the rest of the recipe ready.

Very simple.

So, we need to get some leeks going.

Just cut off right where the roots are attached to the leek.

The part we're gonna use is the white part down here because the green part's pretty tough.

So what I like to do is to actually cut it up first and then wash it.

And that's what I recommend that you do unless you're serving the leeks whole.

So I just cut it in quarters like that and now I'm gonna cut it in chunks.

And if you can't find leeks, certainly you could use onions.

That would be fine, but these days, I think you can always find leeks.

Leeks are wonderful.

They're in the onion family.

I just love them.

They're sort of milder, but they're really delicious.

I'm gonna take these back and wash them and get rid of any sand that might be in there.

So what I do is I fill up a bowl with water and then I put the leeks in.

And the idea being is that if there's any sand in there, it goes to the bottom and the leeks go to the top.

So we separate the two and then what I do instead of dumping the whole thing out, which would put the sand right on top of the leeks, is I just lift them right out and put 'em into a colander.

This is how you wash lettuce, this is how you wash spinach.

They're clean.

We're good to go.

I'm gonna get 'em in the pan.

Wow.

I bet you my duck is ready.

Let me have a look.

Let's see.

Wow.

That's A plus.

I'm gonna get it out of the pan and into a roasting pan.

I'm gonna pop it in the 350 degree oven and this is just to finish heating it through.

Remember, it's completely cooked.

And then we're gonna save that yummy duck fat in there.

Oh boy.

This is why I love it.

I just love skin.

Into a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

All we're doing is reheating it.

And then while that is heating up, I'm gonna finish my sort of melange of vegetables that are gonna be underneath the duck confit.

So in go my leeks, and yeah, they're wet, which you normally wouldn't put something wet into a hot pan, but I think we're gonna be fine.

I'm leaving the fat that was left from the duck and what we wanna do with the leeks is just soften them.

So about 10, 12 minutes.

We could get color on 'em, too.

Actually, that would be fine.

When I say color, caramelize them a little bit.

And I'm gonna season them.

I like to season as I go.

So a little salt and a little pepper.

Very briefly, let me talk about duck fat.

Duck fat is actually not all saturated fat.

A huge percentage of it has the same properties as olive oil.

It's got mono and polyunsaturated fat in it as well as saturated fat, so duck fat is actually not so bad for you.

As a matter of fact, in some cases, it's sort of good.

So, let me let this cook and now I'm cutting my mushrooms.

So now I'm just gonna trim and slice these.

You could use any mushrooms you like.

I like 'em all.

I never met a mushroom I didn't like, so you just use whatever you can find.

I'm cutting these in half 'cause it's easier to slice a mushroom when it's flat than when it's round.

And then you can just slice them easily.

These are gonna go right in with my leeks, which have got some color in them.

I've gotta move quickly and get these in.

So these guys are going in with the leeks and we're gonna give them a few more minutes.

So now while those are cooking, let me talk to you about sauerkraut.

Now we associate sauerkraut with Germany and certainly it's an important part of German cuisine, and sauerkraut is salted cabbage.

That's how we get all that liquid because you salt it, but apparently, thousands of years ago when they were building the "Great Wall of China," the laborers used to eat a similar version of it, which was shredded cabbage that had been preserved in rice vinegar.

Interesting.

So now I'm gonna add the sauerkraut and I added some of the juice with it.

Some chicken broth.

And finally, remember that duck juice that I saved?

The duck juice.

And all we need to do now is to reduce it down until it's almost dry.

Just a little bit of liquid in there.

And we're good to go.

I'm gonna go check my duck.

I've been smelling it.

It's been driving me bananas.

It smells so good.

Oh yeah.

Beautiful.

So, I'm gonna start with a little bit of our leek mixture underneath and we're gonna put the duck right on top.

Remember, this is just for two, so I can be generous.

Just a little more liquid.

Oh yeah.

I think I'll pick this guy.

Whoa.

There we go.

Yummy.

And I'm just serving it with a simple green salad with some carrots, cherry tomatoes, and a little bit of ricotta salata.

So there you go, my duck with braised leeks and sauerkraut.

Just five ingredients and it was so simple 'cause the duck was cooked and ready to go to begin with.

I'm just gonna finish it off with a little fresh thyme.

(upbeat country music) (upbeat jazz music) During my first pregnancy, all the advice books seemed to say that if I wanted to give birth to a super baby, I'd better eat broccoli three times a day, but the trouble was, I completely lost my appetite.

Afterwards, I was happy to resume my broccoli eating ways and my kids like it, too.

So a simple dish, like my peppery broccoli with feta cheese and angel hair pasta, is a fine weeknight meal for the whole clan.

We start with our broccoli.

This is a whole head.

I've just blanched it, which means just not completely cooking it 'cause we're gonna reheat it again in a minute.

Takes about three minutes in boiling salted water.

It's good to cook green vegetables in plenty of boiling salted water.

Now, double duty on this pot, and I already have my salt in there 'cause you need salt for pasta, I'm gonna add my pasta and I'm using 12 ounces of angel hair pasta.

A box is 16 ounces, so that's 3/4 of a box.

And what's great about angel hair pasta is that it cooks in no time at all.

Takes two to three minutes.

But what that means now is I have got to work quickly.

When you first put dry pasta into a pot, the starch comes right out to the edge and if you don't stir it, you're gonna end up with a starchy, lumpy mess in the bottom of the pot.

So let me give it a good stir.

This is a vegetarian recipe.

You could certainly make it carnivorous if you wanted to, but we're gonna use vegetable stock, two cups, and then a little bit of hot pepper flakes for seasoning.

This is the flavoring here.

And you can use 1/2 teaspoon, a whole teaspoon, depends on how hot you like it.

I like it hot.

So let me go get my feta.

Use about six ounces, which is a cup and a half after you crumble it up.

And what the feta is gonna do in the sauce is make it creamy.

Let me have another look here at my pasta.

I wanna under cook it even a little more than usual.

You know how they always talk about al dente, and al dente means to the tooth so that it's not quite cooked through, it's still got a little bit of bite, but what we're gonna do here, when we add it to the pot with the vegetable broth and the hot pepper flakes, just about there, what we're gonna do is finish cooking the pasta in the liquid.

When you do that with the pasta, it absorbs the liquid and it absorbs the flavor and is so much more flavorful than if you finished cooking it completely and then just threw the sauce on top.

Woo!

Facial time.

Now, if you didn't have angel hair pasta and you had a little more time on a weeknight, you could use spaghetti.

That would be fine.

Any pasta that you wanted, really.

Just don't tell the Italians.

They might not approve with all that liquid in there.

So in goes our pasta.

We're gonna finish cooking it.

And our feta cheese, which will melt and cream up the sauce.

You could add more, even a little more feta if you wanted to.

By the way, feta's one of the leanest of cheeses.

It's a good one to reach for when you're trying to, you know, watch your fat.

When you can see that most of the feta is melted, just put back in the broccoli.

And this is a lot of broccoli and that's what's so healthy about it.

We just wanna heat it all the way through.

And you'll find that the pasta has absorbed the flavors that were in the "sauce."

And we're ready to go.

Let's see.

I'm gonna take this outside.

(bright jazz music) Give yourself a high five any night of the week with one of my five ingredient main courses.

There's nothing better than making a satisfying dinner for your family with just a few key ingredients.

I'm Sarah Moulton.

I'll see you next time for more weeknight meals.

(bright jazz music) - [Sara Voiceover] For recipes, videos, and more, go to our website saramoulton.com.

"Sarah's Weeknight Meals" is made possible by USA Rice, Sunsweet, and by... - Cooking is the first kind of love you know.

It all started when I was child with my grandmother doing fresh pasta and now I transmit to all of the guests as something made especially for them.

- [Female Narrator] Oceania Cruises, proud sponsor of Sarah's Weeknight Meals."

(inspiring music) (bright piano music) (inspiring piano music) (dreamy music)