Wednesday, January 4, 2012 Light Italian Fare


In my house I don't attempt to make "sauce" - an interchangeable word with "gravy" which is Italian code for tomato sauce. My husband is Italian, he makes the sauce in this house. When I want to make sauce I have to make a conscious attempt to NOT make sauce. It's all very confusing. When Arcane Malevolence came for Italian Night my husband made his sauce and I made mine, a roasted pepper/tomato sauce that is different enough from regular sauce to elicit a "good sauce" compliment instead of a "good sauce" comment. See, it's confusing.

So yesterday, when I was in the mood for some spaghetti, I had to go outside of the sauce-box yet again. Diced tomato (from a can), onion, garlic and a basil cube. I let it simmer on the stove for close to an hour. While that was going on I marinated some organic chicken breasts in olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper, dried oregano, granulated garlic and onion powder.

As the dinner hour approached I put a big pot of water on the stove to boil the pasta. Smart Taste angel hair, I do love that brand, I'll admit it. I set up the George Foreman Grill to cook the chicken. As soon as that heated up I put the chicken on for 9 minutes. When that was done I put the pasta on for 4 minutes, giving the chicken time to rest. See how nicely this meal times out?

I plated the pasta, poured the chunky sauce over the top, shredded the chicken and topped it all with a dash of Parmesan.

It was really good, filling. All the familiar flavors but in course form, a hearty yet light meal. I felt no guilt. Small amounts of olive oil were the only sources of fat. My husband ate a whole chicken breast, I ate about half, but the leftovers (they come three to a package) will end up in a Smart Taste pasta salad today.

Rock healthy, yo!

-HH

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mike and I are both partly Italian, and our parents taught us different ways of making sauce. Since I think his version is "pretty good" but he doesn't like mine, he usually ends up making the sauce in our house... lol

Jessie

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