August 3rd: Pasta with Chicken, Spinach, Olives, and Garlic

Pasta

Ingredients

• Pasta, something mini penne-ish
• Water
• Salt

The salt was added to the water, the water brought to a boil, and the pasta added. As per the package the pasta's cooking time was 8 minutes. We may have cooked it a tiny bit long as the chef(me) screwed up the timer. It was definitely not ruined however

Chicken, Spinach, Olives and Garlic

Ingredients

• boneless, skinless chicken breast - 1/2 pound
• 1 can green olives - about 6 oz drained
• Spinach, a double to triple handful, enough to fill a large soup bowl
• 4 cloves garlic
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 cup flour(approx)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

The chicken breast was cut into 4 strips lengthwise, then each strip was cut into pieces about an inch long. The flour was put into a bowl and salt and pepper was added. The chicken was tossed in the flour to coat. The garlic was diced. Olive oil was put in my 12 inch skillet, enough to coat the bottom, but not too much. This was mostly a saute, not a pan fry. The skillet was put over low heat and the garlic was added. Once the garlic was fragrant, the heat was turned up to medium, the chicken was added, and the skillet covered to speed cooking. After 1 minute, the chicken was turned and the cover replaced. After two to three more minutes the chicken was removed from the pan, and the balsamic vinegar was added. After the pan was deglazed the olives were added. After 1 minute, the spinach, which had been roughly shredded by hand was added to the pan and the chicken was returned, the heat was turned to low. Once the pasta finished cooking, and was drained(maybe a minute later), the contents of the skillet was tossed with the pasta and served.

Reactions: Kat liked it a lot. I thought it was good

What would I do differently: start with medium heat instead of low, use 1/2 cup to 1 cup liquid to deglaze, probably red wine + vinegar

Notes: The origins of this meal had everything to do with spontaneity. Kat decided she was hungry all of a sudden. This ruled out long cooking times(potatoes, brown rice, legumes, etc), so the choice was between white rice and pasta. Chicken was the available meat. Since a quick turn around time was paramount(hungry girlfriend), simmered sauces were inadvisable. The canned olives had been there for a while, and the spinach had to be used since we got it last week and it would go bad eventually. For an improvisation, it was pretty good, but there wasn't much 'sauce'. Next time, more deglazing liquid. Heck, pasta water probably would have been a decent choice. All in all though, not bad