Leftover Brisket Pasta – Brisket Ragu (Holiday Favorite)

A hearty and flavorful way to turn your brisket leftovers into another delicious recipe - you will only ragu-ret nor making more! Today was a bit of a chilly day so I decided to spice this traditional ragu recipe up with some additional spices to pack some extra heat.

How I Made This Recipe Low Calorie via the Fitsian Method

Brisket pasta is made up of relatively calorie dense ingredients so can very much become a calorie bomb if you're not careful. But by mindfully portioning the high calorie ingredients and making some key ingredient swaps, I'm able to make this dish only about 400 calories. Here's what I did to achieve this:

• Brisket is a very high calorie ingredient given its high fat content -- so it's no surprise this is where most of the calories in this dish will come from. Therefore, it's key to portion this right. Here, I used about 3oz of brisket, which is estimated to be about 300 calories.
• I used FiberGourmet’s low calorie pasta, which is only 100 calories per serving. Check out Fiber Gourmet's products here.
• I omitted usage of oil (beyond oil spray) and butter, while utilizing the porcini stock and pasta water to get the desired consistency for the sauce.

Tips and Tricks

How do you reheat cold brisket without drying it out?

A tried and true method to reheat brisket while retaining it's delicious juices is to put it in the oven for about 10-15 minutes (depending on the size of the brisket) at 210 degrees Fahrenheit. If you're unsure about the time, start with 10 minutes and check on it regularly after.

Reserve Pasta Water and Porcini Stock for Added Flavour and Texture

Since this recipe omits the usage of oil and butter in order to keep calories low, you can help make the sauce texture more liquid by utilizing the water used to soak the dried porcini mushrooms as well as the pasta water to assist with mixing the ingredients together to a desired texture.

What is Fiber Gourmet Pasta made of? Does it taste like regular pasta?

Fiber Gourmet pasta is more fiber heavy compared to traditional pasta, utilizing resistant wheat starch. Taste wise, it does not differ much from normal pasta. I've used Fiber Gourmet pasta when I've had dinner guests over without telling them until after and they were astounded that they were not able to notice a difference! You can read more about their pastas on Fiber Gourmet's site.

For more low calorie pasta recipes, check out my Pasta Without Pounds recipe collection.

Ingredients

• 3oz Beef brisket (Cooked)
• Dried porcini mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon White pepper
• 1-2 clove Garlic
• 1 thai chili (Optional)
• 1 teaspoon Red onion, minced
• 1 teaspoon Five Spice powder (Optional)
• 1 teaspoon Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Balsamic vinegar
• Salt, pepper, and paprika (For seasoning)
• 1 sprig Rosemary
• 1 Bay leaf
• 1 serving Fiber Gourmet Pasta
• 1 tablespoon Tomato Paste

Putting It All Together

1. Preheat oven to 210 while soaking a cup of dried porcini mushrooms in about half a cup of warm water. Heat brisket for about 15 min in the oven covered in foil to retain moisture.
2. Sauté onions and dried Thai chilis and season with white pepper, black pepper, salt, paprika, rosemary, garlic and 5 spice powder (completely optional but I wanted a deeper flavor). Toss in mushrooms but keep porcini stock for later.
3. Toss in brisket into the mixture, then add in a tablespoon of tomato paste. Toss in porcini stock, a bit of soy sauce, and balsamic vinegar.
4. Mix in Fiber Gourmet linguini and serve.