Tagliatelle with Chicken & Fresh Tomatoes

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. Tagliatelle pasta

• 8 chicken tenders

• 2 large ripe tomatoes, quartered

• 2 garlic cloves, crushed

• 1 tsp lemon zest

• 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

• 1 sprig fresh thyme

• 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

• oil for cooking

• salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook pasta according to package directions.

2. While pasta cooks, heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Season chicken with salt, pepper and lemon zest. Saute chicken tenders for 2 to 3 minutes per side depending on size of tenders. Set aside and keep warm.

3. When pasta is done cooking, save a cup of pasta water. If there is oil remaining in skillet used to cook chicken (or add 2 tsp of oil), heat on medium heat.

4. Add tomatoes to pan and cook, stirring occasionally for one minute. Add garlic and thyme to pan; season with salt and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring gently, as tomatoes start to lose their juice, pour pasta water a little at a time. Use enough pasta water depending on how much sauce you desire (1/4 to 1/2 cup). Add lemon juice.

5. Add cooked tagliatelle to pan and incorporate with the sauce. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if desire.

6. Plate tagliatelle and top with two pieces each of chicken tenders.

Serves: 4

Notes&Tips:

• Tagliatelle pasta comes from the Emilia-Romagna Region of Italy which encompasses such cites as Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, and Parma, among others. It is an egg-based pasta similar in texture and width to Fettuccine. I happen to like the taste of tagliatelle pasta better than Fettuccine.

• I had some nice large tomatoes that were very juicy and wanted to make use of them. They worked beautifully in this pasta dish to create a light and fresh tomato sauce.

• I did not put many ingredients into this dish as I wanted to keep it simple and let the tomatoes be the star of the dish. And indeed, they were the star! Sweet, juicy, vine ripe tomatoes right from my backyard.

• When cooking the tomatoes, you do not want them to break down too much, but just enough to get some of the tomato juice to flavor the pasta. As you can see from the image above, the tomatoes were mostly intact.