chicken penne pasta

Lately I have had this itch to experiment in the kitchen. I am no 5star chef, don't get any ideas. I just wanted to try new things! See here for my experiment with Quinoa, which you will NOT regret making! I am telling you--you will have a hard time believe it's healthy!

This week I decided to create a pasta. I have never made a Marsala cream sauce before, so I thought I'd give it a whirl! It was delicious! (see below for the sauce recipe) I made a whole wheat penne pasta with asparagus, sun dried tomatoes, organic chicken breast, pine nuts, & a bit of mozerella all in a Marsala cream sauce. Chris loved it! It's packed with flavor, so I recommend an ice cold lemon water with it.

Here's a simple recipe of how to make it yourself: Start making sauce (see below), when you have about 8min left start pasta. Cook pasta according to package instructions (only use 8-10oz of the pasta). While pasta is cooking cut asparagus into 1.5inch pieces (cutting off end), toast your pine nuts, and dice your sin dried tomatoes into whatever size you want. When pasta has about 2-3min left throw in asparagus pieces to blanch them. Strain once time is up. Put pasta back in pot & add sauce-stir. Stir in pine nuts & sun dried tomatoes. (also throw in chicken pieces & cubed mozerella if you're feeling like making it a meal!) Salt to taste.

Marsala Cream Sauce

• 1Shallot - minced
• 1 tb Unsalted butter
• 1 c Dry marsala wine
• 1 t Fresh thyme
• 1 c Heavy cream
• 2 tb Unsalted butter -- cubed
• Salt and white pepper -- to taste
• 1/2 c Grated parmesan

• Saute shallot in the butter, covered, for 5 min. Add
• wine and thyme and reduce until only about 2 tbsp of
• liquid remain. Add cream and simmer until reduced by
• half. Add butter and stir continuously until fully
• emulsified. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in parmesan. keep warm until ready to serve

Happy Cooking!