Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Pasta with basil and tomato sauce

The tomato sauce was something from the silver spoon Italian cookbook that I made with extra ripe farmers market tomatoes. The recipe was something like this:

4 perfect tomatoes (9 oz)
some garlic (2 cloves)
some olive oil (3 T)
some basil (10 leaves - torn)
pinch of sugar
pinch of salt

-Boil several inches of water in a saucepan - enough to cover the tomatoes
- slice x's into the non-stem end of the tomatoes
- drop the tomatoes in the boiling water and leave them for about 30 seconds - take them out and remove the skins. Remove the seeds.
- add tomatoes, sugar, and salt to a saucepan and cook over low heat for 30 minutes without stirring
remove from heat, mash tomatoes with a wooden spoon, and let cool - add olive oil and basil

For the basil sauce:

Lots of basil leaves - about 3 cups
about .5 C olive oil
three cloves of garlic - pressed
kosher salt
pinches (little) of cayenne pepper and cinnamon

Process the basil leaves in a food processor and add olive oil slowly while the processor is running. Check for consistency and keep adding olive oil and processing until it is a smooth paste. Add the cinnamon and cayenne pepper and salt to tsate while processing - taste to correct.

(this is not pesto - I didn't have any pine nuts or enough cheese)

For the pasta:

- half a box of spaghetti
- chicken stock
- a few T's of cream

boil spaghetti until al dente. Drain, set aside and cover to keep warm

For chicken: defrost two chicken breasts and brine them. Remove from brine and bash with a rolling pin (I covered them with plastic wrap during bashing to reduce splattering) until they are .5 inches thick. Coat chicken with basil paste.

- heat 2 T olive oil in a large skillet, add chicken, let cook on one side until browned (about 5-6 min.) and them flip to brown on other side. Remove chicken from pan and set aside - tented with foil.

Lower heat under pan - and deglaze with chicken stock (about 3-4T) Pour off and reserve the stock.

Add 3T basil paste, 1.5 C tomato sauce; and 3T cream, and most of the stick use to deglaze to the pan. Heat through and add pasta. Swirl to incorporate.

Slice chicken - serve mounds of pasta, some chicken, and top with shredded Parmesan.