Leftovers Fit for a Diva

We ate a lot of convenience foods when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s. There were dinners of Hamburger Helper and Chun King chop suey, but the Turkey Tetrazzini that came from the freezer in a red Stouffer’s box rose above them all. It was cheesy, creamy, and rich. I thought of it as something fancy, even though I was a picky enough eater that I carefully extracted all traces of celery from the noodles and piled them on the side of my plate.

Decades later, while looking through an old cookbook for a way to upgrade dry leftover Thanksgiving turkey, Tetrazzini and I got reacquainted. Now this casserole is a holiday tradition at my house.

Named after the Florentine opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940), the recipe is a member of an exclusive club of dishes named in honor of famous female performers. In the 1890s, Peach Melba was created for Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba by French chef Auguste Escoffier. He also created Melba Toast for her when she fell ill on tour in London and allegedly complained that the toast at the Hotel Savoy was too thick. The Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova gave her last name to the crispy meringue dessert that shows up every Easter on Instagram. There is also a variety of melon named for 19th-century Swedish soprano Jenny Lind — the one who, legend has it, sang from a stone tower in Boston that was moved to our very own seaside and still peeks out over the treetops in the Truro woods.

There are many variations of the dish but no known original recipe. Turkey is now the most famous, but the older versions used chicken or sometimes seafood. The other commonalities are pasta, sherry or white wine, mushrooms, almonds, Parmesan or breadcrumbs, and sometimes peas, all in a creamy sauce. Even though the dish is often described as Italian-American, I add tarragon because I like the sophisticated anise flavor of that herb with poultry and dairy-based sauces. A hint of nutmeg adds a pleasant undertone as well — but don’t add too much. As Julia Child once said, “You never want your guests to taste something you’ve made and say, ‘Hmm nutmeg.’ ”

The exact culinary link between Madame Tetrazzini and the recipe is hard to prove, though she is certainly the namesake. In the early 1900s, the coloratura soprano was one of the most famous musicians in the world. Some say Escoffier created it for her at the Savoy. There is a stronger link to San Francisco, where Tetrazzini enjoyed huge success in the early 1900s. According to Erica J. Peters in her 2013 San Francisco: A Food Biography, Tetrazzini first earned renown there in 1905 and on Christmas Eve in 1910 sang to 200,000 people at an impromptu concert on the street near the Palace Hotel. Peters writes that the chicken version of the dish was likely created for her by a chef at the hotel where the “Florentine Nightingale” was staying at the time.

Peters adds that the first known printed version of the recipe was in a 1908 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine. That article says that the casserole was created at New York City’s Knickerbocker Hotel, where opera stars such as Tetrazzini, Caruso, and others frequently stayed. Food history can be elusive, but I like a mystery. New York or San Francisco. The Savoy or the Palace. Chicken or fish. After a fair amount of research, I can’t even figure out when the turkey snuck in, but as a lover of Thanksgiving leftovers I could not be more pleased that it’s there.

The sauce can be a little rich, so feel free to lighten it partly with milk instead of all cream. Or just throw dietary caution to the wind, as Luisa might have done. To quote the opera star toward the end of her life, “I am old, I am fat, but I am still Tetrazzini.”

TURKEY TETRAZZINI
Makes 4-6 servings

Cooked turkey
½ pound spaghetti
½ cup slivered almonds
1 Tbsp. butter
¼ tsp. lemon zest
8 oz. mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 Tbsp. butter
4 Tbsp. flour
2 cups chicken stock
½ cup sherry
1 cup light cream
1 tsp. chopped tarragon
2 pinches ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
Grated Parmesan, breadcrumbs, and chopped parsley for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 375° F. Shred the turkey into bite-size pieces and set aside. You’ll want about 3 cups.
2. Break the spaghetti in thirds (3- to 4-inch lengths) and boil in salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.
3. Lightly toast the almonds in a dry saucepan, add 1 tablespoon butter, lemon zest, and mushrooms, and sauté until the mushrooms are soft. Combine with the spaghetti.
4. In the saucepan, melt the rest of the butter and add the flour to make a roux. Slowly add stock and sherry and bring to a busy simmer while stirring. The finished sauce should coat a wooden spoon and have the consistency of medium-thick gravy.
5. Turn off heat and stir in cream, tarragon, and nutmeg. Add black pepper and check for salt if needed (that will depend on how salty your stock and turkey already are).
6. Combine the turkey and sauce with the spaghetti and mushroom mixture. Put the mixture into a medium casserole pan or individual ramekins or ovenproof bowls. The mixture should be swimming in sauce, otherwise the dish will be too dry when baked, so add more cream if needed. Sprinkle with cheese and breadcrumbs and bake for 20 minutes until the top is golden and sauce is bubbling. Garnish with parsley and serve hot.