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'd 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.
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 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
Preparation:
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.
