Italian herbed chicken pasta with olives and spinach

Pasta is a family staple.  It provides us with some quick, easy, tasty meals.  This dish is light, healthy and delicious.  It keeps really well for a fabulous 'left over' lunch the next day.

Ingredients
1 kg skinless chicken breast or thighs
flour for dusting (approx 1/2 cup)
1 cup kalamata olives (pitted if you can get them)
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (or 1-2tsp dried)
1/4 cup chopped fresh oregano (or 1-2 tsp dried)
200g green beans (chopped into 2-3cm pieces)
2-3 handfuls of spinach leaves
2/3 sour cream
pack of pasta of your choice

Method
Preheat oven to 180C

  1. Coat chicken pieces in flour and brown for about 2 minutes on each side in a hot pan with a little olive oil.  Use a pan you can put in the oven or transfer the chicken into an oven proof dish.
  2. Put herbs, olives, chicken stock and wine in with the chicken, cover with foil and place in the oven.  Bake for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
  3. Lift chicken from pan and reserve juices
  4. Cook pasta according to packet instructions
  5. Add beans to juices and cook for 3 minutes or until beans are tender
  6. Slice chicken and return to the pan
  7. Add spinach and sour cream stir through, wilting the spinach
  8. Drain pasta and stir through the sauce
Serve immediately with freshly ground pepper and a side of a salad made with ripe tomatoes, red onion and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lamb Shanks with sweet chilli and black bean

Image
This dish has a rich, tasty sauce. The shanks are browned and then cooked in the sauce until the meat is very tender. This can be done in the oven, crockpot, stove top or in a deep electric frypan. Best served with mashed potato sweetened with carrot, kumara (sweet potato), pumpkin or parsnip.  Ingredients Lamb shanks - 1 per person 1/4 cup black bean sauce 1/2 cup sweet chilli sauce 1 1/2 cups water 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger 3 cloves garlic - crushed Method In an electric frypan Heat the pan on the highest setting place the shanks (no oil needed) in the pan, pop the lid on and brown on all sides - this will take 15-20 minutes.  Turn pan down to a simmer setting combine all the other ingredients and pour over the shanks. Place the lid back on and leave to simmer until meat is very tender approx 1 1/2 hours. Turn the shanks from time to time to make sure they are coated in the sauce. Keep an eye on the sauce and add more water if needed....
Read more

Community consultation, conversations and questions

Image
Many of you will have seen that my fellow Cromwell Community Board (CCB) member Robin Dicey posed some questions for our community in The Bulletin last week.  Like all of us on the CCB Robin is looking for ways to engage and connect with the community.  We all want to be doing the best for those that we represent and to be making decisions that reflect what the residents and ratepayers of Cromwell actually want to see in our great wee town.  So, well done to Robin for trying to get the conversation going on a range of issues.  I've popped an image of Robin's questions below - you can also find them on page 12 of The Bulletin dated 12 January 2017.  Robin has included his contact details for anyone interested in contributing to the discussion.  I would be very happy to be contacted too - anna.harrison@codc.govt.nz or via my Facebook page Anna Harrison Cromwell Community Board. One of the questions Robin asks is in regard to the level of community con...
Read more

Circus Time!

Image
I've been pretty quiet over the last couple of weeks.  I've attended all meetings required of me, engaged in discussion and discourse, listened and expected to be heard and thought that there had been a resolution to halt the action to remove Neil Gillespie as Board Chair with only 13 months to an election and with the immensely important Master Plan Project in full swing.  I left a meeting on Tuesday 21st August thinking that a decision had been made to seek further governance training and to set out a rules of engagement document outlining roles and responsibilities of board members and their relationship with each other, council, the mayor and council staff.  So when I was contacted less than a week later on Monday 27 August I was surprised to hear that a requisition letter calling for the removal of Neil as chair had been sent to Sanchia Jacobs, CODC Chief Executive.  I relayed that surprise to the journalist who rang the next day.  I was not blissfully unaw...
Read more