Lemon Feta Basil Linguini with Chicken
This blog entry was actually started late last year, and I never got around to finishing it until today.
From Dec. 2016…
I’m supposed to cook at least once a month this year as part of the yearly plan. So far I’m doing pretty good. In July I played around with Thai food, learning some excellent dishes while out in Bangkok for a friend’s wedding and in August, armed with Thai cookbooks from the trip, I learned how to make mango-sticky rice. September and October were all about breakfast. I tried out a few different recipes with poached eggs and a few different methods of poaching. Eggs Florentine is probably my favourite. While it sounds fancy, it’s basically poached eggs, and cooked spinach on toast topped with hollandaise sauce. R made the hollandaise and did a bang-up job of it. Gordon Ramsay may be famous for his on-air tantrums, but I find his cooking videos and cookbooks to be really well-done. This recipe is actually one our favourites.
(Almost) A Year Later…
We’ve cooked it a few times now, most recently for my family back in Canada over the summer. The original recipe didn’t use chicken so if you are a vegetarian, such as one of my own family members, rest assured you’ll still have a tasty meal to enjoy if you omit the chicken.
Lemon Feta Basil Linguini with Chicken |
Ingredients
Chicken addition
Crumble the Feta and separate it into two equal portions. Prep the ingredients before cooking the pasta and set aside into small bowls. Make sure to pick the stems off the basil. Toast the pine nuts and set aside with the other ingredients. Now start prepping the chicken.Heat the oil and add garlic, cook for about a minute, add chicken and season with salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes until chicken is done. Save any oil/liquid from the pan and set it aside. Cook the fresh pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Tip the pasta into a colander, leaving about 1 tablespoons of the cooking water in the pot. Immediately return the pasta to the pot and add the oil, lemon zest and juice mixture, followed by the parmesan, basil, and one portion of the crumbled feta. Toss well and check the seasoning. Add the chicken as you plate each serving. I recommend plating a small portion of pasta, adding chicken, and then adding another small portion of pasta to cover the chicken. Once all the servings are plated, scatter the remaining chicken, feta and the pine nuts over the top. This dish can be served right away but is also good when served cool. |