Tomato Pasta Sauce with Chicken and Vegetables

Pasta sauce was one of the first things I started experimenting with when I was first learning how to cook.  I have been inventing and re-inventing this recipe for years, while sticking mostly with my original concept.  Store bought pasta sauces just don’t cut it in our household.  John being part Italian and growing up with his Nona living him and my total distaste for “Ragu” makes it almost taboo here.  One day I will share John’s fantastic sauce recipe, but in the meantime here is mine.

This is a very light sauce and extremely healthy as I do not use beef in my sauce.  You will actually notice beef is not something I use ever, as I am completely unable to digest it and only make it special for John.  So for all you non-beefeaters out there, this is a great meat sauce alternative!

Tomato Pasta Sauce with Chicken and Vegetables

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 pack ground chicken
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1 small zucchini, chopped into 1/2 inch chunks
• 5 of the bigger sized cherry tomatoes in chunks
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 quart jar of tomato sauce (I use my own) or 2 big cans of tomato sauce
• 1 can tomato paste
• optional: 1 tbsp chicken fat (I usually have some in the freezer that I skimmed off the top of my chicken stock)
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
• 1 tsp sugar
• fresh ground pepper
• sea salt

Heat your pot on medium heat, put your olive oil in and let it warm up.  Put your garlic in and the ground chicken.  Brown up the ground chicken until there isn’t any pink left.  Add the onion, pepper, tomato, and zucchini.  Let everything fry up for a few minutes just to soften up the vegetables.

Add your wine and let boil for a couple minutes, so the chicken takes on a bit of the wine flavor.

Now, add the tomato sauce and paste and bring everything to a boil. Add your herbs, sugar, salt and pepper. Let simmer a few minutes and taste your sauce, this is where I tweek flavors.  If its too tangy, I add more salt and a bit more sugar.  This is your sauce so tweek to your preferences! Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes so the flavors meld together.

Serve over your favorite pasta and cheese and voila!

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

Often when I cook, I don’t really plan out what I am going to do.  I just sort of look in the fridge and freezer to analyze what I have on hand. Near the end of the week, my ingredients are starting to thin out, as I am due for a grocery run.  But somehow I manage to create the best meals this way! This just happened to be one of them, John and I struggled to not over eat with this meal (which we both did anyway). As always, the measurements aren’t exact because I rarely measure.  So just play around!

Garlic Shrimp Pasta

• 2.3 servings Spagettini
• 1 cup or a little more than a cup of peeled Shrimp
• Olive Oil
• 2 cloves of Garlic, minced
• White Wine
• 1/2 sweet Pepper (use whatever color you have, I had yellow), diced
• 1/4 cup Peas (I used frozen, but fresh would be better)
• 2 Shallots, sliced thin
• handful Grape Tomatoes, halved
• fresh Thyme, chopped
• fresh Oregano, chopped
• Pepper
• Sea Salt

First of all, get your water on the burner for your pasta, add some olive oil in the water to prevent the noodles from sticking together.  Chop up all your veggies in the meantime, so they are ready to go.

Heat a pan on medium heat and drizzle olive oil on the bottom and let the pan get hot.  Add your garlic and let fry for a little bit before adding the shrimp, be careful not to burn your garlic!  Add the shrimp and pour enough wine so it covers the whole bottom of the frying pan, throw in a pinch of salt at this point.

Let the shrimp cook for a couple minutes (until the shrimp are starting to look pink), by this time you may have some boiling water on your hands.  Add the spagettini and let boil 5-6 minutes.

Going back to your fry pan, add your peppers, shallots and peas, cook for a few minutes.  Drain your pasta and put aside. Add your tomatoes to the frying pan, and only cook for 30 seconds or so.

Start adding the pasta to your frying pan with a pair of tongs, a bit at a time.  Once the pasta is all in, start adding more olive oil and mixing the pasta so that the pasta is easy to manipulate in the pan but not getting too greasy!

Add some wine, just so nothing is sticking to the pan and the pasta can absorb some of the wine flavor. Toss in your fresh herbs next.  Keep mixing as you go, this time adding fresh ground pepper so its evenly distributed in the dish.  Use your discretion with the pepper, we used a lot because we like heat.  If you want it more mild, just add a bit.  Add salt in the same fashion, once again using your discretion.  I only added another pinch, we don’t eat a lot of salt in our food.

Now that all the ingredients are in, the pasta should have absorbed flavors, the tomatoes cooked but not over cooked and your shrimp shouldn’t be rubbery.  Toss in some Parmesan when you eat and voila!

Fantastico!