Pasta with a Richly Aromatic Egg Sauce, Followed by a Deft Chicken and Vegetable Salad

Italian cooking is, well dynamic; new dishes are invented every day, and here are a couple of fine examples; were you to set these bucatini in front of my father-in-law, whose idea of the perfect pasta sauce is my mother-in-law's sugo alla Bolognese, he's probably go hungry, and he wouldn't be at all enthusiastic about the salad either. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, would probably enjoy both. To serve 4 you'll need:

For the first course:

2 eggs

2 sprigs marjoram

A bunch of basil

1 tablespoon pickled capers, rinsed

4 small green tomatoes

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmigiano

2 tablespoons pine nuts (substitute walnut meats if need be)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

12 ounces (320 g) bucatini

For the second course:

1 pound (450 g) chicken breast, butterflied, boiled and thinly sliced

1/2 pound (225 g) green salad of the kind you most prefer

1/4 cup shredded Parmigiano

1/2 cup croutons

2 small sweet peppers, briefly simmered in a skillet and cut into rounds, discarding ribs and seeds.

Begin by putting the eggs in a pot with cold water to cover; bring the water to a boil and cook them for 6 minutes. Cool them under cold running water, peel away the shells, and put the eggs in the blender, together with the basil, and marjoram. Add 1/4 cup olive oil, a pinch of salt, a healthy grinding of pepper, the grated cheese, and blend the mixture until it is creamy.

Toast the pine nuts in a nonstick pan until golden, and turn them out onto a paper towel to cool. Cut the green tomatoes into thin wedges, and add them to the sauce, together with the pine nuts and the capers; mix well.

In the meantime, bring pasta water to a boil, salt it, and cook the bucatini, and prepare the salad by slivering the chicken breast and combining it with the other ingredients. Use a little more than half the sauce to season the pasta, and the remainder to dress the salad, which will be nice with crusty bread. The wine? A white, perhaps a Soave.

A printer-friendly version of these recipes.
Other Salads

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