February 24 – March 2, 2025

Wednesday:                       Marry Me Chicken Pasta

Thursday:                             Chicken, Mushroom and Vegetable Stir Fry

Friday:                                   Baked Cod with Potatoes and Broccoli

Saturday:                              Chicago Tavern-Style Pizza

Sunday                                  Chicken Soup for Beez’s Recovery

This is going to be a short post because the main client for my cooking, the great and beauteous Beez, aka SWMBO (she who must be obeyed), had a bit of an issue this week and is now at home recovering from orthopaedic surgery and I am so happy to be cooking for her again and so busy with pressure hose and running and fetching . . . No, wait, scratch that.  I would wear pressure-hose for the rest of my life in order to make sure that she is home and safe and telling me the dinner is too salty or needs more seasoning and could I have a smaller plate? and would you give me a bit more juice?  (I might take off the pressure-hose when wearing shorts.)

And now for an awkward segue . . .

Cute is for Babies and Pets, Not Food

Look, I hate cutesy names – no wait, even cute names – for food and recipes.  Tater-tots can be quite good, but I can’t bring myself to order them because my tongue will simply not pronounce the name.  Happy Meals, anything with a prefix like Mini- or Vegi- or a suffix like -ettes or -alooza easily and immediately earn my contempt.  And I will not willingly eat at anyone’s ‘House of . . .’ or ‘ -orama . . .’

So why am I flogging ‘Marry Me Pasta’ this week?  Well, it’s just too good to ignore.  I saw the food being eaten by the great chef Jeffrey Zakarian on “The Kitchen,” and heard him give it, not just his imprimatur,* but his praise.  So, liking all of the ingredients, I thought I’d give it a try.  But when I went to the show’s website to get the recipe I saw, to my disgust, that the dish was called ‘Marry Me Pasta.’  However, it is a cravable recipe, and the fact that it was cooked by Katie Lee Biegel, former girlfriend of the great Billy Joel helped me to overcome my aversion to the soppy recipe title.  I love pasta, but please no spaghettios.

*It’s a Catholic thing, not precisely anti-American, like the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, but not exactly in sync with our approach to literary culture.  On the other hand, the Vatican is not, so far, to blame for reality television or internet memes.  Come to think of it, “The Kitchen” is reality t.v. but of a tame and educational sort.  And it features good food, Katie Lee Biegel and Jeff Mauro who, for people my age, is much funnier than anyone on Saturday Night Live, except the occasional guest host.

MARRY ME CHICKEN PASTA

(Adapted from Katie Lee Biegel)

Timing:                                                    45 minutes        

Ingredients:                                             Serves 4

1 pound ground chicken

1 pound extra-long mafaldine noodles (note – we used rigatoni, I would have preferred tagliatelle or any wide noodle)

1 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and chopped

1 ½ cups chicken stock, 4 oz. can of tomato paste, ½ cup heavy cream

½ cup grated Pecorino-Romano – more for garnish

Fresh basil leaves for garnish, 2 teaspoons kosher salt – more to taste, 1 teaspoon ground black pepper

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, minced – I used maybe ¼ teaspoon garlic powder

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (if you don’t have, use dried oregano, rosemary and thyme)

1 tablespoon butter

Prep:

Let the tomatoes drain for 15 minutes, then chop.  The larger the pieces the more intense pops of flavor in the final dish.  I’d chop ¾ into small dice and the rest into larger pieces.

Get the other ingredients to hand.

Put a large pot of water on a burner and heat to just short of boiling.

Cook:

Heat a large skillet (we used a Dutch over to avoid splashing) over medium-high with 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

When the oil begins to shimmer, add the chicken and let it brown, breaking it up with a wooden spoon and seasoning it with 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.  This will take 7 minutes or so.  Depending on the btu rating of your burner, you may well have to reduce the heat closer to medium to avoid burning (we did).  Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet and return to medium heat.  Add the garlic, sun-dried tomatoes and Italian seasoning and cook for 30 seconds.  Add the tomatoe paste and cook into deep red and slightly caramelized – about 2 ½ minutes.

Now deglaze the skillet with the chicken stock, scraping up the browned bits with the back of a spoon.

Add the cooked chicken back to the skillet and bring to a simmer.  Season with the remaining teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of pepper and allow the stock to reduce for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, you will have salted the heated water to a boil, added the pasta and cooked per package instructions.  Reserve 2 cups of pasta water when draining the pasta.

Meanwhile, stir the butter and cream into the chicken mixture and bring to a simmer.  Drain the noodles and add to the pasta along with some of the pasta water and toss to coat, adding more pasta water as needed to bind everything.

Remove from the heat and sprinkle with the pecorino.  Transfer to a large bowl, garnish with additional cheese and the basil and serve hot.