How to use your leftover turkey

A Sicilian Lifestyle Blog

When you have all that turkey leftover and you don’t quite fancy another full blown roast dinner, what do you do with it?

The Strazzanti Boxing Day Turkey Club Sandwich

We have a tradition in the Strazzanti household that we have to create a new sandwich each year on boxing day with the leftovers. Last year our Dad created the Strazzanti Boxing Day Turkey Club Sandwich. Inspired by 2 things, his favourite sandwich when home in Sicily with cotoletta alla palermitana and the classic turkey club sandwich held together with cocktail sticks.

The cotoletta alla palermitana is usually veal or chicken coated in a seasoned breadcrumb and fried to golden perfection. Dad and now us grew up putting any leftover cotoletta from the big batch Nonna would make, in between 2 thick slices of sesame seed toasted bread with sharp salty pecorino cheese slices inside.

With the addition of crisp lettuce, juicy tomatoes, creamy lemony mayonnaise and melting mild soft cheese, this is the perfect hybrid for an indulgent boxing day leftover turkey sandwich. Discover the recipe here using leftover cooked turkey in place of the veal or chicken.

Pastina in Brodo di Tacchino (pasta in turkey broth)

Growing up Pastina in Brodo was a regular dish in our household and each grandparent had their own version of how they made it. Nonna Strazzanti would add 1 small potato roughly cubed in hers to thicken up the brodo (broth) and at the very end she would add in one whisked whole egg and swirl it through the broth just before serving.

Our Nonno Forte would take a whole chicken, add in all the veg and let it simmer away for a good few hours so the broth took on all the flavours intensely. He would then remove the chicken and add in the pastina into the brodo and cook until perfectly al dente. We would then eat the pastina in brodo for our primo piatto and then the cooked chicken with salad and bread for our secondo piatto. Warm memories of our Sunday lunches together at home.

This recipe, however, is what we would make days after Christmas when we had leftover turkey that needed to be used up and we wanted something a bit lighter and clean to eat. Some make turkey curry, we make Pastina in Brodo, our Christmas Edition. Discover the recipe here.

And if you’re anything like us then you might have some leftover panettone too as we all love different flavours! If you need to mix it up a bit and feel bored with panettone on its own then we’ve got you covered with 3 delicious ways to use your leftover panettone, discover them all here.