Chicken, Spinach And Cherry Tomato Pasta

Yes, finally back to blogging , but suffering from a severe cold and cough, so my mind is a bit fuzzy. So how was the holidays! Now its back to reality and the school runs and other daily activities!.

You know I noticed I say a lot of times," a handful or two "of something , well I never realized this until my hubby one day  brought it to my notice. He was out doing some grocery shopping and I asked him to bring a handful of chillies, He had taken out 9 year old little guy with him. He calls me up and goes , "whose hand am I to use, my hand size,  little guy or  yours (meaning me although my little guy's hands are almost my hand size now)??"
So really it did get me thinking, I mean even Jamie Oliver sometimes  says take a couple of handfuls  and I pretty sure his hands are pretty big.

Pasta is a favorite in my home, I usually cook it for dinner and these days I prefer to skip the tomato sauce and stick to simple flavours.  I came up with this recipe while trying to come up with  something to use up some left over roast chicken.

If you dont have any leftover cooked chicken , saute' some thinly sliced boneless chicken breast  in some olive oil , seasoned with some salt and pepper.

Baby spinach is not available through out Maldives so instead use kangkung leaves ( leaves only) or blanched boaveli leaves and use  roughly chopped regular tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes. This dish needs to  be made just before serving, so make about 1 hour  to dinner or lunch time.

Recipe : Chicken, Spinach and Cherry tomato pasta

1/2 pkt  (500g pkt) of spagetti

1 cooked  boneless chicken breast, sliced

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

2 big handfuls of baby spinach

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

juice of 1/2 lime

2-3  tbsp olive oil

salt and pepper

grated parmesan cheese ( if available)

water to cook the pasta

First put the  water to boil to cook the pasta, seasoned generously with  salt. Once it starts to boil put the pasta in and  cook until al dente'. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid .

In a separate  large deep frying pan or saucepan , heat olive oil with the garlic  slices,  don't let the garlic burn. Now add  the lime juice, chilli flakes and tomatoes, spinach and chicken and toss.  

By the now the pasta will be cooked, drain , reserving some of the liquid, add the pasta into the sauce and toss using tongs . Add a few ladles of the reserved pasta cooking liquid and stir . Taste adjust seasoning,you might need a little bit of lime juice  and salt to taste. 

Serve immediately, with or without the parmesan cheese.