Bowties With Chicken and Beans in a Spicy Sauce, or Farfalle Con Pollo e Fagioli in Salsa Piccante: This is a nice example of modern Italian cuisine -- though my mother-in-law, who is one of the finest traditional Italian cooks I know, would enjoy it, she would probably never think of preparing it herself. To serve 4 you'll need:
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 pound (320 g) bowties
- A chicken breast, grilled (leftover will be fine)
- An 8-ounce (200 g, drained weight) can cranberry or pinto beans
- 6 sweet small green peppers (you'll want mild thin-walled peppers, not thick-walled bell peppers)
- 2/3 pound (300 g) ripe plum tomatoes, blanched, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- Half an onion, peeled and finely chopped
- A fresh hot pepper, seeded and slivered
- Half a lime
- A sprig of coriander, finely minced
- Olive oil
- A pinch of sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
Preparation:
Combine the tomatoes, onion, and hot pepper in a bowl, seasoning the mixture with the juice of the lime, salt and pepper to taste, and a pinch of sugar. Add the coriander to the bowl, together with 6 tablespoons olive oil, and mix well. Cover the bowl and chill it in the refrigerator for a half hour.In the meantime, set pasta water to boil, and when it does, salt it and cook the pasta, draining it when it's still al dente, and running it under cold water before transferring it to a bowl.
And while the water it heating, remove the skin from the chicken breast, bone it, trim away any fat it may have, and slice it fairly thinly. Stem, seed, rib, and sliver the green peppers too. Drain the beans.
When the pasta is cooked and cooled, combine it with the chilled tomato sauce, the chicken breast, the slivered green peppers, beans, and mix well. Chill lightly before serving.
