Recipe: Pasta and Chicken with Sun-dried Tomatoes and Artichoke Hearts

A long day working in the basement, organizing ungodly amounts of Christmas ornaments and assorted knickknacks, left me looking for something lovely and light for dinner last night—something that could be enjoyed on the back porch with a glass of wine and a few hungry cats. Enter lemony artichoke hearts, tangy sun-dried tomatoes, and tender chicken, tossed with pasta and a light butter and olive oil sauce. 

Serves: 4

Prep. time: 10-15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• Olive oil, enough to lightly coat the bottom of medium pan
• 2-3 tbsp. butter
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1-2 inch cubes
• 1, 7 oz. jar of sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil (I used Alessi brand), drained (reserve the oil in the jar or in a small bowl) and diced
• 1, 14 oz. can artichoke hearts, drained and quartered (cut each into four pieces)
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1-3 tbsp. dried Italian seasoning
• Salt and pepper, to taste (I used a rainbow peppercorn blend, which packs some great flavor!)
• 8 oz. spaghetti, angel hair, or linguine (for a different style, use a small/short pasta, like farfalle or penne)
• Italian cheese, as desired

Directions

Season the chicken with salt and pepper (garlic powder is also a good addition). Heat a little regular olive oil, olive oil from the sun-dried tomato jar, and butter in a medium pan over medium-high heat, then add the chicken. Cook until the chicken is a little more than halfway cooked through. Add the artichoke hearts and cook for another 1-2 minutes, then add the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and a little more sun-dried tomato olive oil from the jar. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring the mixture occasionally. Season with salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning. While the mixture is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to the packaging (about 4-5 minutes for long, thin pastas). Drain the pasta, then add a little butter and a splash of sun-dried tomato olive oil to it—toss to combine. Add the chicken, artichoke, and sun-dried tomato mixture to the pasta and toss to combine. Serve topped with Italian seasoning and/or Italian cheese, as desired.

This dish offers light, bright flavors that make it perfect as a summertime dinner. Artichoke hearts have a slightly lemony taste that blends well with the tangy, sweet flavor of the sun-dried tomatoes. A "sauce" of butter and olive oil is all you need to pull the dish together, and a sprinkling of Italian cheese is a perfect way to top it off.

Recipe: Italian Burgers (Sun-dried Tomato Burgers with Basil Pesto, Mozzarella, and Basil)

I've been on this sun-dried tomato kick since this weekend—I whipped up some of my sun-dried tomato pesto on Saturday night and since then, I've put it in pasta, spread it on bread, and even stolen a few spoonfuls straight from the pot. When I finished that up, I went on a search for recipes with sun-dried tomatoes and came across this gem, switched a few things up, and went for it. So, tonight's dinner: Italian-style burgers made with ground beef, sun-dried tomatoes, and garlic served on ciabatta bread with freshly made basil pesto, creamy mozzarella cheese, and fresh basil leaves. This is a delicious Italian twist on a traditional burger—perfect for dinner out on the back porch on a warm summer evening. 

Serves: 4-6
Prep. time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Special equipment: Grill

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 oz. (approx. 1/3 cup) sun-dried tomatoes, drained and diced (I use Alessi brand)
• 1/4 cup grated Pecorino-Romano cheese
• 1 lb. 90% or 93% lean ground beef
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 4-6 slices fresh mozzarella cheese
• 4-6 ciabatta rolls/buns (I ended up buying small ciabatta bread loaves and cutting them in half), sliced in half
• 4-6 basil leaves
• Approx 3 tbsp. basil pesto (see recipe here)

Directions

Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. In a medium bowl, combine the onion, garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, Pecorino-Romano cheese, salt, and pepper (to get a finer mix, put all of these ingredients in a food processor and pulse to blend, then add to the bowl). Add the beef and gently mix everything until combined (do not overwork the meat though!). Form into 4-6 (we ended up with 5) hamburger patties and make a small indentation (use your thumb) in the center of each one (this help prevents the burger from becoming domed in the center while it cooks). Cook on the grill until cooked to desired doneness (about 3-4 minutes per side to get medium doneness). During the last minute of cooking, place the ciabatta slices, inside down, on the grill and lightly toast them (this prevents the bread from soaking up burger juices—do this, and you'll never have mushy, wet burger bottoms again!). Remove the burgers and buns from the grill. Spread a little basil pesto on the bottoms of each bun, then place the beef patties on, topped with a slice of mozzarella, a basil leave, and the top of the bun. Serve will fries, chips, a salad, or whatever floats your boat, and enjoy!

Burgers, sizzling away on the grill. Gotta love those bright red chunks of sun-dried tomatoes!

These burgers are bursting with flavor—they are definitely near the top of my list of best meals I've made and  this recipe is most certainly going in my "Keep" pile. Sun-dried tomatoes are sweet, tangy, and rich, and they add a pop of flavor to the meat. The pesto is garlicky, spicy, and fresh and, like the sun-dried tomatoes in the patty, it packs a punch that really heightens the overall flavor of the burger. Soft, creamy mozzarella and fresh basil leaves add lightness and freshness to the burger. All of that on a slightly chewy, slightly crunchy ciabatta roll and you've got yourself one hell of a burger, Italian-style.

Recipe: Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Risotto with Seared Chicken

A good risotto is incredibly rich, incredibly creamy, and incredibly delicious. Like warm macaroni-and-cheese and buttery mashed potatoes, risotto is something of a comfort food, albeit a fancy comfort food that takes a lot of time and patience to make. It's up there with homemade pasta and the perfectly poached egg on the list of "things that are (supposedly) hard to make." Truthfully, it's not so much that risotto is hard to make, but that it takes a very long time to make and really requires your constant attention to make sure it cooks through properly—it's so worth making though, because, as I said in the first sentence, a good risotto is rich, creamy, and absolutely delicious. This recipe combines tangy sun-dried tomatoes and fresh basil with a healthy handful of grated Parmesan cheese, some white wine, and a little garlic to create a colorful, flavorful dish that's incredibly filling and perfect served with chicken (or shrimp or scallops). Plan on making this on a night when you have time to spare and a big appetite.

Serves: 6
Prep. time: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: Approx. 45 min.-1 hour (give or take a little time—the rice takes a long time to cook)
Difficulty: Moderate

Ingredients

• Approx. 6-8 cups chicken stock or broth
• 1-3 tbsp. whole butter
• 1-2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine (cooking wine will do)
• 2 cups Arborio rice (this is key—you must use this type of rice)
• 1, 7 oz. jar (about 10 pieces) sun-dried tomatoes, diced (I buy Alessi brand, oil-packed)
• Approx. 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, or to taste
• Approx. 1/4 cup fresh basil, chiffonade
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
• 3 chicken breasts, cut in half and pounded out to about 1/2 inch thickness

Directions
In a medium pot, bring the chicken broth to a simmer (it should bubble slightly around the edges). In a large pot, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat, then add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is slightly soft and translucent (about 5 minutes). Add the rice to the pot with the onion and garlic mixture and stir it around to coat it with the butter and olive oil. Let it cook for 1-2 minutes, until the rice is coated evenly and the pieces look a little white in the middle. Add in the white wine and cook until it's absorbed into the rice and there is little or no wine visible in the pot. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add in a ladle-full of chicken stock, stirring the rice as you pour. Keep stirring and watch as the rice absorbs the stock. When most of the stock is absorbed, add in another ladle-full, stirring as you go, and watching until the stock is absorbed. Repeat this process until the rice is tender and the mixture is creamy (it's really important to taste this as you go so you make sure you get the right texture). If your rice is crunchy, add more hot stock, but be sure that you always add it in small ladle-fulls—the rice needs to absorb the stock before more is added. Towards the end, when you're nearing the end of your pot of stock, the rice should look really creamy and the individual grains should look larger. At this point, feel free to reduce the heat to low and let it cook gently, undisturbed, to let it absorb any excess stock and to thicken a bit more. The result should be tender rice (they may be a little al dente, but this is okay) that is creamy and thick. Once the rice is done, toss in the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes, and salt and pepper, plus a little butter (about 1 tbsp.), then stir to combine. The tricky part about this is figuring out when to start the chicken, and my timing was a little off when I made this. I'd recommend starting the chicken when you've only got only a few ladle-fulls of stock left—heat a little olive oil and butter in a large pan over medium heat. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and place them in the pan, cooking both sides until the chicken breasts are cooked through.
Plate the chicken atop the rice and garnish with a little fresh basil.

This dish takes time and it's not something you can start and then walk away from—you need to be constantly stirring the rice, adding more stock, and tasting it for texture and doneness the entire time—but the end results are worth the time it takes to make it (and if you're cooking for a smaller crowd like me, you'll have some delicious leftovers). The rice is decadent and creamy, with a rich, full flavor from the chicken stock and Parmesan cheese and brightness from sun-dried tomatoes and basil.

Pasta Shells with Mixed Greens and Italian Cheese

After eating hotdogs and french fries at the PennState game on Saturday, and spending Sunday evening lounging at a restaurant in the mountains, eating lightly fried goat cheese, filet migon with tomato beurre blanc, and decadent triple chocolate mousse, I wanted a light meal for dinner tonight. Now, while some might not consider any pasta dish a light meal, I think a pasta dish with little or no sauce, lots of veggies, and just a sprinkling of cheese is filling, without making you feel heavy and lethargic later. This is a variation on a Giada De Laurentiis recipe, and it's quite possibly the quickest, easiest meal you'll ever make—it's so light and delicious too!

Serves: 4
Prep. time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 11-14 minutes
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1/2 lb. (8 oz.) medium pasta shells
• Approx. 4 oz. mixed baby greens, washed and left whole (I used 2-3 big handfuls)
• 8-10 basil leaves, washed and left whole
• 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes (packed in olive oil), chopped
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup shredded Italian cheese (I used a mix of Pecorino-Romano and Parmigiano-Reggiano)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Garlic powder, to taste
• Approx. 1/4 cup olive oil from the jar of sun-dried tomatoes (it's infused with the flavor of the tomatoes and it adds a delicious flavor to the dish)

Directions
Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions (approx. 13 minutes). Drain the pasta, but reserve about 1/3 cup of the pasta water. Place the salad greens on the bottom of the pot that you used to cook the pasta in, then put the drained pasta back on top. Toss to combine, pour the reserved cooking liquid over the mixture, then place the lid on the pot and let the heat from the pasta help wilt the greens. After a minute or two, toss in the sun-dried tomatoes and cheese, and add some salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Drizzle the sun-dried tomato olive oil over the mixture and toss to completely combine. Serve topped with more cheese if desired.

This dish is so simple and light, but the sweet, tangy sun-dried tomatoes and nutty, salty Italian cheeses add a ton of flavor to the dish without adding a ton of calories. The wilted greens add color and a fresh taste, while the sun-dried tomato oil lightly coats all of the tender pasta shells and creates a delicate sauce. We ate dinner out on the back porch, enjoying the cool evening air and some white wine from a favorite vineyard in North Carolina and it was perfect.

Recipe: Sun-dried Tomato Pesto

After dinner last night, my dad and I lounged around the kitchen table and discussed what I should make for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, the ensuing conversation was not exactly the most enlightening:

Me: Chicken, beef, pork...?
Dad: Chicken.
Me: Pasta, potatoes, or rice?
Dad: How about just veggies? Like cauliflower or peas or something!
Me: Um...okay. So, you want chicken and vegetables...what an exciting meal, dad! *Sarcasm*

So, the combination of chicken and vegetables gave me endless options, but I wanted to keep it really simple, so I decided to jazz up the chicken with some sort of sauce and pair it with vegetables roasted in a little extra virgin olive oil, sprinkled with some salt and pepper. I had a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in the pantry just begging to be put to good use, so I came up with a quick and easy recipe for sun-dried tomato pesto to top the chicken with. With just a handful of ingredients, I got a cup of bright, intensely flavorful pesto that was perfect with the sautéed chicken.

Serves: Makes approx. 1 cup
Prep. time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: No cooking required
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 1 small jar (approx. 7 fl. oz.) sun-dried tomatoes (I use Alessi brand, packed in olive oil)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
• A few leaves of fresh flat leaf parsley
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp. tomato paste (this helps thicken the mixture)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend until the mixture is well blended, with no large chunks. Refrigerate any leftovers.

This pesto is packed with flavor and is perfect tossed with pasta, dolloped on top of chicken, or spread on a crusty piece of Italian bread as a crostini appetizer. It would also make a great sauce for a pizza or a spread for a sandwich.