My love of food...: Chicken Saltimboca and Summertime Pasta

I've been spending so much time with Jamie recently that my Whitewater Cooks cookbooks were starting to get a wee bit jealous. So, I decided to make it up to Whitewater by making two recipes from Whitewater Cooks at Home the other day. As always, the recipes were simple and delicious! I highly recommend the Summertime Pasta recipe...it was out of control!! I've included my versions of the recipes below, for your viewing pleasure. For those of you that have this cookbook, you can find the recipes on pages 102 and 122.

Chicken Saltimboca

2 chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
4 large sage leaves
4 prosciutto slices
Olive oil
1/2 lemon

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Pour enough olive oil into a pan to just cover the bottom and heat. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Then place the two sage leaves on top of the chicken breasts and wrap the chicken in the proscuitto slices. Whitewater suggests 1 slice of prosciutto per chicken but I found it difficult to wrap with just one. I found the easiest way was to go bottom to top with one slice and top to bottom with the other slice and then skewer a toothpick in on either side.

Add the chicken breasts to the pan and sauté until the prosciutto is browned on either side. Then pop the entire skillet into the over for 20-25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Whitewater then suggests taking the pan out and adding enough red wine to the pan to take all the little brown bits off the bottom, then adding the juice of 1/2 lemon and create a bit of a sauce to pour over top of the chicken breasts. I had added too much olive oil, so there were no brown bits and this wasn't possible. I simply drizzled a little lemon juice over each chicken breast and I thought it still tasted nice and was more simple. Serves 2-3.

This was a nice change from my regular chicken cooking method. I really liked the sage and prosciutto flavours together.

Summertime Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Fresh Parmesan

1/2 cup olive oil
6 good-sized garlic cloves, crushed
1 bunch/basket of cherry tomatoes, cut in half so you can see the seeds (or 2-3 large tomatoes cut into bite-sized pieces)
1/2-1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 bunch fresh basil, chopped

Mix all of the ingredients, except for the olive oil and garlic, together in a large bowl. Heat the olive oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Stir for about 10 seconds and then add this mixture to the bowl. Stir, cover and set aside. This can be done ahead of time in the morning, or right before hand. The longer you let it sit, the more the flavours meld. I did mine as I was cooking dinner and I still found the flavours were unbelievable!

Cook enough pasta for 3-4 people. Add to the bowl, mix and serve. Sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese over top if so desired. I actually found that I preferred it without the cheese...and I never thought those words would come out of my mouth.

This dish is absolutely amazing!!! Plus, it was so easy. This is definitely going to become a staple for me.

Thanks for another delicious meal Whitewater!