Thursday, May 1, 2008

Perfect Summer Pasta

I will ,yet again, rely on Penzys for this. They make a Italian Dressing base, that I just love. I use Rice Wine Vinegar and ¼ of the oil it calls for though when I make it. I use that dressing for the marinade here, however, I double the amount of base used when making the marinade.

3 chicken breasts
3-4 zucchini sliced up
3-4 squash sliced up
2 tomatoes chopped up
1 onion sliced up
2 cups marinade (if you don’t have Penzys use your favorite Italian dressing)
1 small package of feta
4-5 leave fresh basil chopped up
1 lb pasta

Grilling is a must for this I think. I have never tried it not grilled, but I can’t imagine it would be near as good, but give it a try

The night before put chicken breasts in ziploc bag and one cup of marinade. In another Ziploc put the veggies and the other cup marinade. Right before your ready to cook remove the chicken and veggies from the marinade. If you have a veggie pan to go on the grill, grill the veggies as well, just save ¼ C of the marinade (from the veggies, not the chicken!!) for later. If you don’t have a veggie pan, just do it on the stove top, and there is no need to reserve some marinade since cooking on the stove top allows the veggies to juice. While chicken is cooking boil the pasta. Once chicken is done, cut up into slices. Add veggies, basil, feta, and marinade reserve (if needed) to pasta , mix in. You can either just add the sliced chicken to the whole dish or plate the pasta/veggie mixture and add sliced chicken to the individual dishes.

This would also be great with artichoke and asparagus. Also smoked mozzarella or goat cheese might be a good substitute for the feta. Fresh rosemary might also be good as well.

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