Pasta with chicken and grape tomatoes

I pinned this recipe long ago, and just now got a chance to cook it (or lets put it this way: I had very boring chicken breasts in the fridge which had to be cooked asap and the simpler, the better).
The recipe is VERY easy, also giving you room for your own additions and experiments.
You can arrange the whole dinner in less than 30 minutes, thus it makes a perfect choice for busy weeknights.
 I personally love pasta with less ingredients. I used to overload the pasta dishes with vegetables, meats and cheeses, and the whole point of pasta was lost. It was simply hard to taste the actual pasta hidden in the ocean of other ingredients. Tomato, basil and olive oil is a GO for me.
You can omit the chicken here or serve it with shrimp instead. Or maybe you'd like to add your own magic ingredient, who knows?

Pasta with chicken and tomatoes:
Adapted from SkinnyTaste.com

2 chicken breasts, skinless, cut in cubes or as matchsticks (or hearts,etc)
2 tbsp dried italian herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary, parsley, thyme, sage)
sea salt and pepper
3 tbsp EVOO
8 oz spaghetti (I used whole wheat)
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
fresh rosemary leaves
fresh basil leaves, chopped

Pat dry chicken breasts. Season very generously with all the desired dry herbs, sea salt and pepper.
In a large skillet heat 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add chicken. Brown the meat until it's no longer pink. About 3-4 minutes on a medium heat. Remove chicken from the skillet and set aside.

Add chopped garlic cloves and red pepper flakes to the same skillet. Reduce the heat to low. Saute garlic for less than a minute. If there is burning happening, add remaining olive oil. Stir in tomatoes. Fry for one more minute. Add white wine, stirring and scraping up all the browned bits in the pan. Once wine is reduced by half in volume, add fresh rosemary. Keep the heat very-very low at this point.

Cook pasta according to the package instructions (keeping it 1 minute away from al-dente).
Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water once pasta is ready.

Add chicken to the skillet with tomatoes, gently mix in the drained pasta. Toss well, making sure pasta is absorbing the sauce. Add a little bit of pasta water if it seems too dry.
Keep the skillet on very low for one more minute (or less if you'd like to keep your pasta al dente). Serve with fresh basil and parmesan cheese.

I read this article recently. Some points of it, seriously, opened my eyes for the whole process of pasta cooking . It turned out I've made some small but important mistakes. Here is what I found:

• " Have your sauce completed by the time you add the pasta to the boiling salted water. Keep the sauce on a low simmer until the pasta is ready. Your pasta shouldn’t wait for your sauce to cook. The sauce should be awaiting the pasta." -my mistake #1 

• "As you drain the pasta, reserve some of the pasta water. Loosely drain the pasta, keeping the pasta moist. Never rinse the pasta."  

• "Turning the heat on the pan will allow the hot sauce and hot pasta to cook for a couple brief minutes together to incorporate their flavors and create a beautiful texture. The starches from the pasta will slightly thicken the sauce. This is why it is suggested to cook your pasta just a tad more than al dente… it will continue cooking for a moment in the saucepan." -good to know, sometimes I served sauce like this one over the top of drained pasta, instead of adding pasta to the sauce and cooking it together for a few minutes. 

• "Add a couple tablespoons at a time of the reserved hot pasta water to the pan to smooth out the sauce. Reserved pasta water contains starch that can be used to adjust the consistency of your sauce, from thickening it to thinning it."

And last one but not the least one:

•  "In total, you want to only cook your pasta and sauce together on the stove for about 2 minutes.  Remove the pan from the heat, and transfer your pasta to a warm serving bowl."

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! And enjoy your perfect bowl of pasta now that you know some tips (I'm not the one who didn't know it, right?) 

Hay and Straw Fettuccine

Lets keep going with the Authentic Italian recipes. Cooking them is actually fun, and surprisingly I am not tired of eating pasta almost every day.

So here it is, Hay and Straw Fettuccine
Adapted from  http://www.mangiabenepasta.com/favorite7.html

My personal note: I would increase the amount of pasta at least twice, or decrease the rest of the ingredients by a half accordingly. Below is the original recipe. I did not change anything.

1.     4 tbsp unsalted butter
        1 cup heavy cream
        1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
        3 egg yolks
        1/4 tsp pepper

2.    6-8 button mushrooms, sliced
       1 tbsp butter
       1/4 cup chopped onion
       4 oz prosciutto
       1 garlic glove, minced
       1/3 cup frozen peas, thawed

3.   8 oz egg and spinach fettuccine (I used egg fettuccine)
      1 tbsp chopped parsley

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, add 2/3 cup of heavy cream and Parmesan cheese, bring to a simmer.
In a bowl whisk together 1/3 cup of cream and the yolks. Slowly pour the hot cream (from the saucepan) into the bowl with yolks to temper it. Add pepper. Whisk to combine.

2. In a skillet saute the mushrooms with 1 tbs of butter, 2-3 minutes.
Add the onion, prosciutto and garlic. Saute until prosciutto is slightly crisp and the onion is golden, 3-4 minutes. Turn off the heat.

3.In the meantime, cook the fettuccine al dente. Add peas to the cooking pasta, just to heat it through. Drain the pasta, add the egg-Parmesan mixture along with  mushrooms and prosciutto. Gently mix all together. Sprinkle with parsley.

Have you tried Pasta Carbonara, the authentic one?

Not being an expert in Italian cuisine (yet), I always thought that pasta Carbonara  goes with a cream in it. Mistake! 

My  food passion and curiosity lead me to a few websites with authentic Italian recipes.

I am so happy and excited to explore, learn and cook from it! And of course share my acquired knowledge, mistakes and achievements here! If you want to share your authentic recipes, go ahead, I would love to know which ones are you favorite and why.

This recipe is quick (15 minutes maximum), easy and very delicious.

I must confess, the eggs for some reason sat up a little while cooking, which definitely didn't make me happy, yet this pasta was soooo tasty, I almost licked my plate.

Worth trying! 

Here is the source I used: Please see the recipe here

My only substitution- whole wheat spaghetti. 

Bolognese sauce

I always crave for Italian food. I even have this dream to find an authentic Italian (and Mexican, Mediterranean,  German, etc) restaurant, where some italian grandma will cook italian dishes exactly as they cook back in Italy. It wouldn't be anything fancy, rather I imagine it would be small and cozy, home-style restaurant.

Aaaaanyway, my first attempt to make a bolognese sauce ended up great! I got a rich, flavorful, delicious sauce with mid-thick (does this word exist in the dictionary?) texture. I froze half of it, so it will save me a lot of cooking hours next time I to serve it.

What is interesting, is that I found out that the bolognese sauce should be never served with spaghetti! The pasta you use for this sauce must be thick or tubular, so it holds meat pieces properly.
It would be great if you have a heavy bottom pan, as simmering this sauce in it for 3-4 hours will be much easier.

I adapted the recipe from this website http://www.mangiabenepasta.com/ragu_bolognese.html, it seems to be one of the most authentic ones. The only thing I omitted were chicken hearts, other than that I kept all the ingredients and proportions as it is mentioned in original source. Here is another website without chicken hearts http://culinariaitalia.wordpress.com/2008/06/29/ragu-alla-bolognese-authentic-recipe/, well, those two recipes are pretty similar.

Thus there is no need to rewrite exactly the same recipe (click any of the provided link above). But I will be happy to show few pictures which I got during the cooking process. It was fun!

Enjoy!

Pasta Salad

Recently I have decided to cook a few authentic Italian dishes, using the original recipe's sources or at least the closest one to the original.

It is pretty fun, as cooking with a purpose is much more interesting.
So here, I will post few Italian recipes which have nothing to do with the healthy eating or any substitutions.
I do not want to mess up with "real" home cooking, so I use whatever the recipe asks for, even if it is a butter or lard or whatever.

The only substitution I will probably make is the whole wheat pasta, which i might use if possible, if not, then whatever pasta is needed. I will try to find and cook with the freshest and organic products, so the taste is real.
I will mark all related posts as "Authentic Italian", so you know it's not a clean eating etc.
But I promise you, IT IS worth it!!! To have a real pasta dish, with creamy butter and bacon (well, my first thought: butter->coconut oil, bacon->prosciutto)  is a treat which you can afford once in awhile, simply because you deserved it ;-)

My first shot, Pasta Salad:
source http://www.mangiabenepasta.com/salads_pasta.html

12 ounces (1 package) tri-colored bow tie pasta (cooked al-dente)
½ cup sliced scallions
2 roasted medium peppers, diced.
1.5 cup feta cheese, crumbled
few fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ cup chicken broth
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp dried oregano

Mix pasta with scallions, feta, pepper and basil. In a small bowl whisk together olive oil, chicken broth, lemon juice and oregano.
Pour sauce over the pasta. Stir gently. Serve immediately. Enjoy with a glass of wine on a summer porch!

Паста с козьим сыром и шпинатом

Паста это такой вкусный и универсальный продукт! Миллион разных видов, соусов. Добавлять к пасте можно абсолютно все, на что хватает фантазии.  Холодная со свежими овощами, как-салат, или свежесваренная с рыбой, птицей или просто с маслом и Пармезаном. Много-много всего можно придумать с пастой. Я даже видела пасту с фруктами.
Просто, вкусно и быстро.

Я готовлю пасту часто,но к сожалению, не так часто, как хотелось бы, и использую только сорт пшеницы грубого помола (whole wheat). Поэтому, каждый раз, когда у нас на ужин паста для меня это радость :-) Да и вообще хорошо покушать для меня  уже в радость, если уж откровенно.

Один из самых вкусных рецептов пасты, которую мне приходилось готовить был из морепродуктов,  белого вина и черной пасты (из чернил каракатицы). Черная паста сама по cебе  пахнет океаном, а если к ней добавить морепродукты...мммммм....ВКУСНОТА.
Вот несколько фото:

Сегодня я поделюсь совсем другим, быстрым, но тоже очень вкусным рецептом пасты. А именно:

Паста с козьим сыром и шпинатом ( Все ингредиенты на глаз)

-200 гр Фузилли грубого помола (можно взять любую другую,какая вам нравится)
-150 гр козьего сыра (брусочек)
-2 кулачка листьев свежего шпината
-1 средний цуккини, порезанный полукольцами, 0.5см толщиной
-1 ст ложка масла для жарки (у меня для этого практически всегда кокосовое масло,но оливковое тоже подойдет)
-пучок свежего порезанного базилика
-1 ст ложка лимонного сока
-веточка свежего розмарина
-черный молотый перец
-сушеный молотый чеснок

Варим пасту согласно инструкции на упаковке. Лично я люблю, когда паста al dente, поэтому варю ее минут 7-9 максимум. Сохраняем стакан воды с пасты, когда она готова.
Разогреваем сковороду с маслом. На среднем огне жарим цуккини пока он не стал мягким, минуты 3-4, постоянно переворачивая. Добавляем в эту же сковороду шпинат. Жарим еще минут 4. Уменьшаем огонь и бросаем в у шпинату молотый перец, чеснок, розмарин. Добавляем стакан воды из пасты в сковороду, хорошо перемешиваем. Смешиваем всю получившуюся массу с козьим сыром, лимонным соком, базиликом. И наконец добавляем пасту ко всем ингредиентам, аккуратно смешивая все вместе.
Подавать с белым вином.

P.S. так как мой муж мясоед и ужин для него не ужин, если он без мяса, то эту пасту я "заправила" итальянскими сосисками.