Tag Archives: tomatoes

Chicken Cellentani with Goat Cheese and Lemon

My friend Cassia has a blog full of lovely, lovely recipes. A while back she posted a recipe for this creamy pasta dish with lemon and basil, and I started hankering to make it the moment I saw her pictures. So on a lovely Sunday afternoon while Heidi and Baby James were staying with us, I whipped it up.

My first reaction: it was okay. Fine. Not bad, not awesome. I wanted to love it but was a little underwhelmed, so I decided not to blog about it because of my commitment to myself (and to you!) to only share recipes I truly love and would make again.

Then a couple days passed. Tuesday night my husband and I immersed ourselves in baking chocolate chip cookies and lemon cream bars, so I decided that it was time to eat the leftovers from Sunday so that we could focus our culinary efforts on the baking side of things. I wasn’t too excited about the leftovers, but I can’t stand to waste perfectly good food, so I pulled the pasta out and reheated a bowl for my husband and a bowl for myself.

And we dug in.

Oh my. It was like a dish transformed! “Wow, this is really good,” I said to my husband between mouthfuls. “Yeah,” he agreed. “You should blog about it.” “Yeah,” I said, engulfed in the wonderment of each bite.

I don’t know what happened to this dish as it sat in the refrigerator for a day and a night, but it was something magical. It got . . . creamier. Tastier. Really friggin’ delicious. So: know that on day #1 it’s a perfectly acceptable pasta dish. But also know that on day #2 and day #3 it becomes a marvellous concoction. Conclusion: if you are cooking for yourself and need something that will stay good or improve in the fridge over time, this is it!

Musical interlude: This is it! Ooooooh, I’ve finally foooooouuund someone, someone to share my life, I’ve finally foooooouuuuund someone . . .

Who the heck sings that song and why is it playing in my head with such clarity?

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts
1 cup flour
Salt and pepper
3 TBS olive oil
1 lb cellentani pasta (or any other small ridged pasta)
1 white onion, diced
6 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
28 oz can diced tomatoes, partly drained
Juice of 1 lemon
12 leaves basil, 10 minced and 2 chiffonade
1 T dried parsley
3/4 cup heavy cream
4 oz goat cheese

Mission #1: let’s get that pasta started. Boil some salted water, and dump it in!

When it’s al dente, drain it and set it aside for later.

While the pasta is cooking, cut the chicken breasts lengthwise into strips. Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and season the strips liberally on both sides with salt and pepper. Then dredge the chicken in the flour and shake off the excess.

Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a pan over high heat. When very hot, add the chicken strips.

Lower the heat to medium-high and don’t touch them for about 3 minutes. When browned on one side, turn them over and continue to brown until cooked through.

Look at that lovely, golden crust!

Remove the chicken to a plate and cut the strips into bite-sized pieces.

Gather the remaning ingredients to your bosom.

Yes, that picture is terribly blurry. But I have a very small and convenient scape-goat–one with poofy cheeks and a little fuzzy head. You can blame my photographic failure on the distractions provided by Baby James in the arms of my husband.

Oh, that Baby James. I miss him so much!

And no, I can’t manage to call him just “James.” He’s Baby James and that’s just that.

While the pasta is cooking and the chicken is frying, apply yourself by dicing the onions and slicing the garlic. Multitasking makes everything go faster.

Add another 1 TBS of olive oil to the pan and cook the onion and garlic until over medium-high heat until soft, about 5 minutes.

Mince up the basil while the onions fry:

And squeeze the lemon too.

By now the onions should be exactly where we want them, so add the partly-drained can of tomatoes, the minced basil, the lemon juice, and the parsley.

Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Things are smellin’ oh-so-fine ’round these parts.

Add the cream and chicken pieces, and stir to coat. Then add the goat cheese and stir the whole creamy mess over low heat until melted.

You’ll notice I didn’t cut my chicken into bite-sized pieces. But I darn well will next time! That Baby James. My culinary focus was totally shot.

Mix the cooked pasta with the sauce, and serve!

Garnish with the basil chiffonade.

And just remember: this dish improves greatly after a night in the fridge!

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Quick & Easy Chickpea Curry

 

This recipe is another Tasty Kitchen winner, shared by Amy from Very Culinary in this post. It immediately had appeal to me for many reasons, starting with the ‘quick’ factor, continuing with the onion and garlic, and ending with the spinach. My stomach clamoring for the dish, I quickly made it a priority to cook up a batch. And is it ever good!

It takes only 30 minutes or less to get on the table, but the flavor is wonderful and deep, as if it had been cooking for much longer. And in case you still need convincing, it’s cheap and healthy and vegetarian (if you dig that thang). In fact, if you want to be a hog-wild health-a-tron, you could even leave out the 2 TBS of butter. So grab ye a can of chickpeas, and let’s make this.

Side note: do you think I should change the name of this blog to “The Health-a-Jenna-Tron”? It has a certain ring to it. Then again, with my liberal use of heavy whipping cream and butter, I may be nailed for misleading the innocent. However, I do plan on using the new adjective ‘healthatronic’ or the noun ‘healthatronicon’ from here on out. Webster’s dictionary, take note!

Ingredients

4 TBS olive oil

1 large onion

2 tsp ground ginger (or 1 TBS fresh)

5 cloves garlic

1 TBS sugar

2 tsp curry powder

1 tsp salt

pepper, to taste

2 TBS tomato paste

1-15 oz can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained

1-14.5 oz can diced tomatoes

1 TBS lemon juice

2 TBS butter

4 cups spinach (or 1 bag)

1/2 cup water

First, dice the onion.

Do a quick mince on the garlic.

Please don’t be afraid of using 5 cloves. For me 5 cloves = holding waaaaay back. My soul was whispering “Use 12 cloves! Use 12! You know you want to!” I think it’s unhealthy to ignore your soul, so next time I will heed its voice. (My voice? Its voice? My voice?: to be discussed in the very far future, possibly by somebody different on a different blog)

If you’re using fresh ginger (I would have, but my gingeroot had become a dry shriveled beast in the fridge), mince that up too. Oh, and drain the can of chickpeas.

Prep work = done!

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven or pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, sugar, salt, black pepper, and curry powder.

Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently so that the curry powder doesn’t burn.

Add the tomato paste . . .

. . . and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring to incorporate it evenly.

Add the drained can of chickpeas, the can of diced tomatoes (with the liquid),

the lemon juice,

and the butter.

Give it all a lovely stir! My it’s smelling good around these parts.

Simmer it uncovered for 10-12 minutes, until the chickpeas are tender but not mushy.

Now! Stir in the water . . .

. . . and the spinach. I used a whole bag, and I didn’t regret it for one second. It’s healthatronic for you.

Stir the mess about until the spinach is just wilted (about 2 more minutes).

Perfect! Now taste and re-season with more salt and pepper if needed.

Serve the curry over steaming hot rice.

So good.

Let’s move in for the kill.

Besides being incredibly flavorful, it’s also so beautifully colorful! Like a small fiesta is taking place on my plate, mariachi band and everything.

What a perfect weeknight dinner.

And on that note, I am so glad that the week is almost halfway over. I don’t know what it is about my eyelids this week, but they seemed to have gained weight over the weekend and become particularly difficult to prop open.

Click here for printer-friendly version: Quick & Easy Chickpea Curry