good food

Pasta with Chicken, Vegetable & White Wine Sauce

Ingredients

• 600g short pasta, e.g. penne or conchiglie (pasta shells)
• 300-350g Chicken thighs (boneless & skinless)
• 2 fresh carrots
• 2 fresh courgettes
• 1 medium onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 tsp olive oil (plus a drizzle for the pasta water)
• sea salt / rock salt (ground) – to taste
• coarse salt (about a small handful)
• chilli flakes, ground

Method

1. Finely chop onion, garlic, carrots, celery & courgettes
2. Chop up the chicken into very small (approx 5mm) pieces
3. Heat up 1tsp oil in a sauté pan, add onions & garlic, soften on a high heat and don’t be afraid to let them brown/caramelise a little for flavour
4. Add the carrots, celery & courgettes
5. While still on a high heat, season with salt & crushed chilli flakes, to taste
6. Turn down the heat & put on a lid
7. In a small frying pan/skillet, heat up 1 tsp oil, add the chicken, season with salt & chilli flakes, to taste. Brown but don’t cook through.
8. Add the chicken to the vegetables in the sauté pan
9. Turn up the heat, add 100ml white wine
10. Stir and once it comes up to the boil, turn the heat down & place on the lid, leaving to simmer gently
11. Leave to cook for approx. 20 mins, checking to ensure it doesn’t dry out.

While the sauce is cooking, cook your pasta ‘al dente’:

• Place water into a large stockpot and put on a high heat (use a lid if you want it to boil faster)
• Add a drizzle of olive or vegetable oil
• Once the water comes up to the boil, add a small handful of coarse salt
• Add the pasta to the boiling water, stir to ensure it moves freely in the water and doesn’t stick to itself
• Keep it boiling at all times, on a high heat, stirring occasionally to ensure the pasta moves freely
• Check whether it’s ready before the time indicated on the packet – ideally the pasta needs to still have ‘bite’ to it and not be too soft

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it and quickly place it in a large bowl or back into the stockpot, then stir in the sauce & serve.

Gloriously Good!