If I have fresh veggies at home and I need to use them before they go bad, I usually make a pasta or stir fry.  This technique is a guilty pleasure of mine.

This version had…
Rigatoni
Vidalia Onion
Chicken (leftover chicken breast)
Sun Dried Tomatoes
Smoked Proscuitto (very small strips)
Mushrooms
Parsley
Garlic

Steps

*First, boil water and toss in the rigatoni and a pinch of salt.

*After it is ready, before straining, pour about 1 1/4 cup of the strarchy water into a cup. Strain the rest of the pasta.

*In the pot that you were cooking your noodles in add about 3.5 tablespoons of butter (I know) and the starchy water and cook this until it reduces (about 5 minutes) and doesn’t look like starchy water.  This is now your sauce.

*While cooking the noodles, I grab the biggest sauté pan that I have, add a little olive oil and toss the onions and garlic in, once they start to soften (5 min), add the mushrooms.  5 minutes later, I add the chicken breast and sun dried tomatoes.

*We are about 10 minutes into the saute process. Add the proscuitto, cook for about 2 minutes, add the “sauce,” toss in the parsley, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

My favorite variation is:  Cipollini Onion, Gourmet Mushrooms, Smoked Bacon and Parsley.

It’s so bad for you, but a nice glass of wine (My pick that night: Hawkes Chardonnay) and this is a quick 15 minute meal that will knock your socks off.

-WIBIA

Tags: cooking, Food, Pasta, Rigatoni

This entry was posted on Friday, June 12th, 2009 at 9:20 am and is filed under At Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.