Turkey Tetrazzini

The cast of characters: leftover turkey, butter, mushrooms, white wine, salt, pepper, cream cheese, Monterey jack, parmesan, turkey broth, peas, black olives, bacon, and garlic.

Add some butter and chopped garlic to a pot over medium heat. (My new favorite trick: storebought peeled garlic minced in a Pampered Chef chopper. This is not a paid advertisement. Amen.)

Saute the garlic for a minute or so…

Then throw in the mushrooms.

Stir around the mushrooms and let them cook…

Then add a little salt.

Pour in a good cup of white wine…

Then you need to let the mushrooms cook and bubble and go nuts for several minutes, or until the liquid is reduced by half.

At that time, you will need to sit on your hands in order to prevent yourself from scarfing down the entire pan of wine-cooked mushrooms because there’s nothing better in the world.

When the liquid is reduced…

Sprinkle in about a third a cup of flour.

Stir it together and think to yourself how weird this pasty, mushroomy mixture looks.

Then stir in a few cups of broth…

And realize all is right with the world again.

Next? Brace yourself. Throw in a block of cream cheese.

Note: It’s best if the cream cheese is softened or room temperature, and it’s best if you add it in pieces instead of one honkin’ big piece like I did.

Basically, you’re then going to stir the whole mixture around until it becomes a wonderful, rich, creamy sauce. If it’s overly thick, you can splash in some broth.

Sorry I didn’t show that part. I’m an airhead.

After that, add some leftover turkey…

The chopped olives (again: The Chopper!)…

A bunch of green peas…

And a bunch of grated cheese.

Stir it all together, then faint because it looks so unbelievably good.

But wait! There’s more! Add some chopped bacon pieces…

And this cooked spaghetti, which has magically appeared from out of nowhere.

(Forgot to mention that earlier. Sorry. You need spaghetti, broken into pieces before boiling.)

Stir it all around, adding salt and pepper to taste. And also—this is important—splash in some more turkey broth to give it a little extra moisture. It’s going to need it while it bakes in the oven.

Then pour it into a large casserole dish…

And sprinkle on some extra Parmesan, some plain breadcrumbs…or some Panko crumbs like I did. (You can get Panko crumbs everywhere now!)

Then bake it in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it’s hot and bubbly and the topping is golden brown.

And then—this is important—you eat it.

You’ll absolutely love this, guys. Just be sure to put it into the oven slightly soupy; I didn’t quite add enough moisture this time and it really did need the extra splash.

Enjoy! And I can’t promise this is the last turkey leftover recipe I’m going to post this week.

It’s the kinda weirdo I am.