Kids Dish

My dad came over for dinner tonight and eager to please i decided to make him one of his favorite meals, chicken, broccoli and penne. Only I didn’t have any penne so I had to use some weird vegetable spirals I picked up at Trader Joe’s when they were out of the whole wheat spirals I usually get, and I wanted to add a bunch of swiss chard that’s been sitting in the crisper waiting to be cooked and eaten and some tomato, since I still have pounds of tomatoes from my garden and the CSA. I browsed online for a while looking for recipes but couldn’t really find any I liked. So I decided to wing it. I mean it’s pasta. How hard could it be?

I grated about two cups of Parmesan while I waited for the pasta water to boil. Since I’m way too cheap to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts I boned and skinned the whole breast I’d defrosted and cut it into one- inch cubes. Then I heated two tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven, seasoned the chicken and cooked it through, turning it to brown on all sides. While the chicken cooked, I thinly sliced half an onion and minced two cloves of garlic. I removed the cooked chicken to a plate and added the onion to the dutch oven, cooking it until soft, about five minutes. I added the garlic and stirred it for a few seconds then added about two cups of milk, 1.5 cups of Parmesan, and a cup of shredded Mozzarella.

Here’s where things started to go wrong. My dad showed up. I’d completely forgotten about the broccoli and had to cut it into bite-sized pieces and steam it for a few minutes. I got that under control, finished cooking the pasta, and stirred the sauce until it thickened. I added the cooked pasta, chicken, a handful of basil from my garden, and broccoli to the dutch oven with the sauce, sprayed a 9×13 baking pan with olive oil and poured the pasta and sauce into the pan. I topped the pasta with the rest of the grated Parmesan and a few tablespoons of breadcrumbs for crunch and baked the whole thing for about 10 minutes in a 350-degree oven.

It was only after the whole thing was in the oven that I realized I’d totally forgotten about the Swiss Chard, tomatoes, and any type of seasoning whatsoever. I thought it was totally bland. Bob admitted it needed more seasoning. My dad said it was very good, but he did leave a sizeable portion behind. Sam, however, loved it. He ate two bowls full along with some whole-wheat sourdough bread spread with pesto. Bland as it was, I’m sure it was better than squash macaroni and cheese.

Next time I make something like that I’ll add plenty of freshly ground black pepper, a bit of salt, and nutmeg to the sauce.