I made this about a week ago for something different. I like to experiment here and there. It turned out well so I’m sharing it with you.
You’ll start with a marinara sauce. Now, growing up with the British side of my family, I never learned to sauté garlic in the pot first, but I learned that recently and it does change the taste of the sauce dramatically. I’ve also tweaked a few things with that sauce to my own taste. I like garlic. What can I say? I also like other spices added to the mix.
Ingredients:
1 29 oz. can of tomato sauce (it doesn’t have to be a name brand)
1 teaspoon of minced garlic (if that)
1-3 chicken breasts
1 pkg. penne pasta
Garlic powder
Onion powder (optional)
Italian seasonings (optional)
*Note: the minced garlic can be found in a jar at the store so you don’t have to mince a clove or two of garlic yourself. Keep it in the refrigerator.
Add olive oil to the pan, giving it a light coating. I use a splash or two only and extra virgin olive oil. Then add your minced garlic and sauté it. Be careful not to burn the garlic. You’ll want to sauté it to a golden brown.
Once the garlic is ready, add the can of tomato sauce and about half a can of water. Depending on how thick or thin you like your sauce, adjust the portion of water.
Bring the sauce to a boil and stir occasionally. As the sauce boils, you’ll see a foam rising to the top.
Skim the foam off. I usually keep the tomato sauce can on the stove just for this purpose. You can dump the foam in there. Continue to boil until it no longer foams – about 15 minutes or so – and stir. After you’ve skimmed the sauce, you can add garlic powder. Allow it to simmer a bit longer and add other desired seasonings to taste.
This sauce takes about an hour to cook.
While the sauce simmers, boil one or two chicken breasts (you can grill this too, if you’d like), depending on how many you’re serving.
Also, begin boiling your water for the pasta.
Once the chicken is done (ie. not pink on the inside), cut it up into bite-size pieces and add it to the sauce.
Boil the pasta until done (usually about 10 minutes) and strain. Move pasta back to pot or to a bowl. Add some of the sauce to the pasta to coat it and serve. When serving, spoon some of the sauce over the pasta on each plate.
Here, I just mixed it all together.
Total cook time is about an hour.
Piacere!
Vive bene, spesso l’amore, di risata molto!
(live well, love much, and laugh often)
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