So does that top photo get your mouth watering?  The work you put into this salad is well worth the wait!  I must admit, as I am typing this, I am eating a big bowl full of this Cold Summer Salad, and convincing myself that the copious amount of veggies in here negate all calories from the carbohydrates in the pasta. :)

(Really, though, it's ok - everything in moderation is just fine!)

This is the time of year to take advantage of the fresh produce available at local markets and make this salad sing!  At first glance, you may think that this may require a bit of prep work - but never fear - there's a reason why this recipe is here - in Emergency Eats!  It's because - this salad thrives on being made a few hours to a few days in advance.  Prepare it on a weekend and enjoy it fresh from the fridge 3 - 4 days afterwards.  No heating required.  It can be a hearty side dish that is very complimentary to bbq, or sit down and sink your teeth into forkfuls for lunch.

Like all creations that Chef Jeff puts into play, this salad is full of flavor.  This is no boring noodles with Italian dressing thing.  So pull up some vegetables, and let's plunge right in to this refreshingly tasty "salad".  And I say "salad" loosely, because there's no lettuce to be seen for miles around here. 

One more thing - this has a kids' seal of approval.  The sweet cherry tomatoes, the saltiness of the black olives, the fun rotini style pasta, and the juicy artichokes enhance the deliciousness of everything else.  It just all comes together, and you won't be serving chicken nuggets tonight!  Never hold back when it comes to young taste buds.  When you introduce new foods to kids at young ages, you will be surprised with the versatility of their palates over time!

Printer Friendly Version:

Ready, set, assemble!  On the left, the ingredients you will need for this dish, including the dressing.  On the right - all veggies, chopped and ready to join each other in culinary perfection. - Photo Credit:  Jeff Doucette

Salad Ingredients:

1 small can or jar artichoke hearts (NOT marinated!) - reserve liquid for dressing
1 can black, pitted olives, drained (sliced or whole)
1/2 cup sliced sun dried tomatoes (reserve liquid from jar)
1/2 - 1 pint of cherry tomatoes, cut in half (if you can't find cherry tomatoes, just cut regular tomatoes into 1 inch chunks)
2 cups broccoli (broken into 1" - 2" pieces) (blanched in boiling water for 1 minute and cooled in an ice bath)
1/2 - 1 medium red onion (if you want this salad really oniony, go with a whole onion, otherwise, I caution you, and just go with half!)
1 large lemon
1 bunch scallions (sliced into 1" pieces)
2 large carrots (thinly sliced)
1/2 lb. rotini pasta (if you can' find rotini pasta (the curly-q spirals), it's ok to substitute bow ties)

Dressing Ingredients:

1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 Tbsp. olive oil
4 Tbsp. white cider vinegar (or just plain white vinegar is fine!)
3 cloves garlic (minced or put through a garlic press)
3 Tbsp. fresh oregano (or 1 tsp. dried)
3 Tbsp. fresh basil (or 1 tsp. dried)
3 Tbsp. fresh parsley (or 1 tsp. dried)
2 Tbsp. fresh dill weed (or 1/2 tsp. dried)
1 tsp. mustard
reserved liquid from artichoke hearts (approximately 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup sliced roasted peppers
reserved liquid from roasted pepper jar (approximately 1/4 cup)
reserved liquid from sun dried tomatoes (approximately 1/4 cup)

***Reserved liquid measurements are approximate!  You will probably have more from the artichoke hearts and less from the peppers and sun dried tomatoes, that's ok!***

Instructions:

1.  Bring 2 - 3 quarts of water to a boil.  Add 1 tsp. salt.

2.  While the water is coming to a boil, cut most of the stalk off of the fresh broccoli, and then snap off the florets with a small part of the stalk intact, using your hands.

3.  Add the broccoli to the boiling water for 60 seconds; then remove it from the water using a slotted spoon, and place it in an ice bath.  (An ice bath is ice water placed in a bowl. This stops anything put in here from cooking and instantly cools it down.)

4.  KEEP THE WATER BOILING ON THE STOVE!

5.  Add 1/2 lb. (usually 1/2 a box) of rotini pasta.  (Rotini is the curly-q pasta; but you can use bow ties, too.)  Boil the noodles for 8 minutes and NO MORE!  You want al dente noodles; not mush! 

6.  While the noodles are cooking, cut the carrots as thin as possible or use a mandolin on the thinnest setting.

7.  Get yo'self a BIG ASS bowl.  Start putting your veggies in there as you slice and dice them so you have plenty of room on your cutting board.  This bowl is where the salad will go anyway, so get it out!

8. Cut the ends off of the red onion and cut it in half lengthwise.  Remove the skin.  Slice and then dice as small as possible.  (This is the part where you may only want to use 1/2 the onion, depending on how onion-y you like things.)  Add it to the big ass bowl.

9.  Drain the black olives and slice into rings.  Add it to the bowl.

10.  Cut the artichoke hearts into quarters, and don't forget to reserve the liquid!  Why not pour the liquid directly into the blender (or food processor to save on dirty dishes! :)  Place the artichoke hearts ONLY in the big bowl.

11.  Cut the sun dried tomatoes into thin strips, and don't forget to reserve the liquid!  Add just the liquid to that blender (or food processor) because that's where it will end up anyway! :)  Place the sun dried tomatoes - you got it - in da bowl!

12.  By this time, your noodles are probably done.  8 minutes max!  Drain and rinse the noodles under cold water and set them aside.  (I know you're wanting to place them in the bowl, but not yet!)

13.  Keep on cutting!  Cut the green part of the scallions into 1/2" pieces, then cut the white part into thin rings.  Yes, place them in THE BOWL!

14.  Cut the tomatoes in 1/2 if using cherry tomatoes.  If you have regular size tomatoes, then go for 1" chunks.  Add them to the bowl.

15.  NOW, add your noodles to the bowl and toss everything about a bit.

16.  Prepare the dressing. Ok, ok, I'll break it down into steps for you. If you wanted to conserve on dirty dishes, you already should have your sun dried tomato liquid and your artichoke heart liquid in the blender or food processor.  If it's not there, get it there.

17.  Juice 1 lemon and put the juice without the seeds in the blender.  (I'm not going to type "or food processor" in every step, so just play along if you are using one please!)

18.  Take the garlic, oregano, basil, parsley, dill weed, salt, sugar, pepper, olive oil, vinegar, mustard, roasted red peppers, and the liquid from the red pepper jar in the measurements listed above and put them all in the blender, too.

19.  Blend for 1 minute on high speed.

20.  Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well.  Refrigerate the salad for minimum 2 hours if you possibly can do so.  The flavors will meld even more if you can store the salad overnight.  Just be sure to mix the salad before serving because some of the dressing will settle on the bottom of the bowl.


Yield:  Serves 6 heaping bowl fulls for 6 hungry people.  If you want to use this for a side dish, it serves 8 - or 4, with 4 portions leftover.

Special Notes:


Other salad additions could include blanched baby asparagus spears chopped into 1 inch pieces.

This stores 3 - 4 days in the refrigerator.

This is a great "make-ahead" item to bring to a bbq.... and there's NO mayo in it, so you don't have to worry about keeping it at sub-zero temperatures!

I will admit, before I tried this Pad Thai recipe, I was not a fan of Thai food.  I've tried it in many restaurants which were highly recommended by friends, but it was (believe it or not) too sweet, too sour, too spicy, or just not my thing.  Chef Jeff and I had a discussion about my disappointment, and he clued me in that my dissatisfaction most likely came from too little or too much tamarind in the sauce; or the chef just blatantly didn't now what s/he was doing.

I do like Asian food.  I can eat sushi all the time.  Tempura is my friend.  Chinese - thumbs up!  But after a few bad experiences with Thai food, I was ready to give up.

So when Chef Jeff told me to try his Pad Thai recipe as an Emergency Eats feature, I was a bit hesitant.  But I figured, ok, I will try it, because there are Thai food lovers out there, even if I'm not destined to be one.

He made a believer out of me.  His Pad Thai has given me hope for my dining future!

One of Chef Jeff's secrets is that he infuses the linguini with flavor.  You will see below.  And, if you do want to take the more traditional route, this recipe will adapt if you want to use standard rice noodles, or bean sprout noodles - which are good if you plan on serving all of this dish immediately.  He's also outlined vegan and gluten free options in the "Special Notes" for you, too.

The Emergency Eats inspiration for using a gluten-based noodle in Pad Thai is because rice-based noodles are great if you serve them immediately; the same with bean sprout noodles; however, if you want to make this dish in advance or want leftovers later in the week, those kinds of noodles turn to mush.  Linguini stands up to the test of time.  Udon Noodles (fresh only) is the closest substitution that  may hold up under refrigeration for about 3 days.

It's so cool to have someone skilled in Asian cuisine like Chef Jeff cranking out these dishes that are very adaptable as you will see!

Ingredients:

1 red pepper
1 cup fresh snow peas (in the pod)
1 onion
1 carrot
1 tsp. fresh ginger root, grated
2" piece fresh ginger root (will be used when boiling the noodles)
2 garlic cloves
1 cup bean sprouts (rinsed & dried)
1/2 cup firm tofu (cut into 1" rectangles, 1/4" thick)
6 scallions
1 lb. shrimp (shelled, deveined, tails on) (medium, large, or jumbo are fine)
1 cup shredded cabbage
2 limes, each quartered
1/2 lb. dried linguine noodles
3 Tbsp. vegetable oil

(for sauce:)
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
3 Tbsp. soy sauce (2 Tbsp. will be used when boiling the noodles)
1/2 tsp. Sriracha hot chili sauce (you can substitute 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 lemon (juiced)
1 tsp. dried tamarind (fresh tamarind fruit is hard to find; if you can find one, grate the green part.  Knorr Tamarind Soup Base works well.  You can also substitute 2 Tbsp. white vinegar if all else fails)

Instructions:


1.  Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a BIG pot.

2.  Add 2 Tbsp. soy sauce to the water.

3.  Cut the 2" piece of fresh ginger into 5 rings about 1/4" thick.  Leave the skin on.  (There's a method to this madness of counting 5 rings - you will see!)

4.  By adding the soy sauce and ginger to the water, this will infuse the noodles with flavor while they cook.  Cook the linguini until it's al dente.  (slightly firm with a toothy bite)  If the box says boil for 8-10 minutes, subtract 2 minutes from the cooking time - that's a good rule of thumb.  While the noodles boil, your mouth will water. Who knew soy-ginger water smelled so good!

5.  IMPORTANT!  Do NOT drain the noodles because you don't want the broth to go down the drain!  Scoop off about 1 - 2 cups of the broth, and reserve it to the side. Then, you may drain the noodles in a colander.  Do NOT rinse them.

6.  Remove the 5 pieces of ginger root that were boiled with the noodles.  No one wants to bite into boiled ginger hunks!  Toss them in the trash.

7.  Cut the red pepper, onion, and carrot into 1"-2" long matchstick pieces.  (Chef Jeff is a perfectionist with this.  He has mad knife skills.  TheLadyinRed is not so fussy - and that's fine.) :)

8.  Cut the cabbage as thinly as you can.  (Or get out your food processor with the shredding blade; or cheat and buy the pre-packaged shredded cabbage)

9.  Cut the white part of the scallions into small rings and the green part into 1" pieces.  Leave the snow peas alone.  Mince the garlic.

10.  Preheat a deep and large frying pan or wok with 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil.  Add the tofu in a single layer.  Cook the tofu about 3 - 5 minutes on each side.  Tofu contains a lot of water and the idea is to let that water evaporate so the pieces turn golden brown on both sides.  Once the tofu is browned, remove it from the pan and set it aside.

11.  Use the same frying pan, and reheat it again with the other tablespoon of vegetable oil.  Add the garlic and the shrimp.  Stir frequently keeping the shrimp coated with the garlic on medium-high heat.  Shrimp cook quickly. Once they are orangey-pink, they are done. That will happen in 3 - 4 minutes.  Remove them from the pan and set aside.  (As a side note, you can just prepare garlic shrimp on its own just like this for a quick meal!)

12.  TheLadyinRed and Chef Jeff are all about minimizing clean-up in the kitchen so we're going to re-use that same pan or wok AGAIN!  (Yay for less dirty dishes!)  Add the final Tbsp. of vegetable oil to the pan over medium-high heat and get ready to stir and not leave the stove!  You want your veggies on the crunchier side - not a soggy sad mess.

13.  Add the cabbage, carrots, and grated ginger root.  Stir for about 1 minute to coat them with oil.

14.  Add all of the other vegetables and 3/4 of the bean sprouts. (Reserve the remaining bean sprouts to add to the top of each plate upon serving for extra crunch.)

15.  Stir the vegetables until they are crisp-tender - about 5 - 6 minutes should do it.  If you like them softer, cook them longer.

16.  Place the linguini in the wok/pan. It will be clumped together but that's ok.

17.  Add back the tofu, shrimp, and reserved broth. Stir to combine over medium-high heat.

18.  Add 2 Tbsp. fish sauce, remaining 1 Tbsp. soy sauce, 1/2 tsp. Sriracha sauce, 1 Tbsp. sugar, 1 tsp. dried tamarind, and the juice of one lemon.  Mix well.  Taste it.  If you would like it tangier, add more tamarind.  It it's not spicy enough, add more Sriracha or hot pepper flakes.  If you want it saltier, add more soy sauce.

19.  Plate with most of the noodles at the bottom and try to arrange some of the shrimp and vegetables on top for nice presentation.  Place a small amount of the reserved bean sprouts on the top of each serving.  Serve with lime wedges on the side so each person can adjust the citrus flavor to their own liking by squeezing limes onto their own plates.

Special Notes:


This serves 6-8 people.  Leftovers can be refrigerated for up to 4 days; or you can make it in advance for a future "Emergency Eats" reheat situation.

Experiment with adding vegetables you love. Suggestions are:

  - thinly sliced raw Brussels sprouts (or if you are a patient person, remove the leaves one at a time and add them to the dish for complimentary flavor)

  - sliced mushrooms (all kinds) <-- highly recommended by The Lady in Red

  - different colors of bell peppers

  - sliced fresh tomatoes

  - bamboo shoots

  - water chestnuts <--yes please! says The Lady in Red

  - string beans

  - yellow or green zucchini/squash

  - spinach, kale, or any other green leafy vegetable

  - peanuts <-- yay! says The Lady in Red


VEGAN OPTION:

    - omit the fish sauce
    - add more tofu
    - add more vegetables

GLUTEN FREE OPTION:

    - replace the linguini with rice or mung bean noodles
    - use a gluten free soy sauce (Kikkoman makes a good one)

Instructions:

1.  Cook the noodles according to package directions in boiling water.  Drain and rinse them.  Preheat your oven to 350°.

5.  This is why I told you to get out a huge bowl - you're going to add the noodles now to the apple-raisin mixture.  If you didn't listen and you aren't using a big bowl right now, please go get one and dump everything in there.  Thanks.  :)  Now stir it all together really well.

9.  Bake your noodle kugel for 45 minutes or until the noodles are lightly browned on the edges. Serve warm.  Warning, it's going to smell so delicious you are going to want to jump into your oven and eat it while it's baking!

Chef Jeff says that the key to great macaroni salad is the cook time and tenderness of the macaroni.  If you follow the directions on a standard box of elbow macaroni, it will say to cook the noodles in rapidly boiling water for 8-10 minutes.  If you are making a cooked pasta dish, this amount of time may work; but for the best macaroni salad, cooking your noodles for 7 minutes, tops, is recommended.

Your noodles should be slightly firm - just a little more firm than al dente, when you get that toothy bite to your pasta.  Cooking the macaroni to this point is very important.  Although the noodles will appear to be half-cooked, and a bit underdone, you want them to have the ability to absorb the sauce that you will create so every noodle captures maximum flavor.  Once the noodles absorb the combined ingredients, the macaroni salad will remain firm for about 5 days, which is the maximum recommended shelf life.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup minced red pepper (or finely grated)
1/4 cup minced onion (or finely grated)
1/4 cup minced carrots (or finely grated)
3 quarts boiling water
1 1/2 cups elbow macaroni
1 tsp salt to add to boiling water
1 tsp salt to add to final mixture
1/4 tsp black pepper to add to the final mixture (or more to taste)
1 cup mayonnaise (It may appear to be a lot, but once the salad sets for a few hours, the noodles will absorb the extra.)

Instructions:

1.  Boil the water.

2.  Once the water is at a rolling boil, add 1 teaspoon of salt.

3.  Add the 1 1/2 cups of uncooked macaroni.  (A 1 lb. box of macaroni yields 2.5 cups.  Double this recipe if you are using a whole box of macaroni.  Keep the boiling time to 7 minutes though!)

4.  Set a timer for 7 minutes or Chef Jeff will come to your house with the macaroni police and hunt you down.  7 MINUTE MACARONI is all you will need to remember.  Stir the noodles once every minute so your noodles don't stick together.

5.  Drain the noodles and rinse them under the coldest water possible.  (If you're impatient like me, dump some ice cubes on them for good measure and let them melt as you rinse your noodles.)

6.  Set your noodles aside.

7.  In the same pot you just boiled your noodles in, combine the remaining ingredients, adding the noodles last and stir them all up.

8.  Do NOT taste this now.  Really, we mean it.  Go put it in the refrigerator for 2 - 3 hours and forget about it until then.  If you disobey us and taste this macaroni salad right after it's made, it will not resemble the taste of the final product.



Special Notes:

It's important that the vegetables are very finely chopped.  Chef Jeff has had individuals who did not care for vegetables in their
macaroni salad totally enjoy this one because he used his amazing knife skills and chopped the onions, pepper, and carrots like crazy (or if you're like me you'll give your food processor a workout). 

Large pieces of vegetables change the taste completely.  That's not a good thing.  Make sure to include any juices left behind while
cutting the vegetables or watching the food processor do it for you.  The juice greatly adds to the final flavors.



Variations:

This is a base macaroni salad.  It tastes fantastic as-is; however consider the following additions (not all at once!) to fine tune it to your expectations.  (These additions can really rock a potato salad, too!)

- Add 1 Tbsp white vinegar if you like a tart snap to your salad
- Add 1/2 Tbsp dried dill weed or 1 Tbsp fresh dill weed (1 of Chef Jeff's favorites)
- Add chilled, chopped hard boiled eggs (The Lady in Red votes for this addition!)
- Add 1/4 tsp dry or regular mustard to kick up the spice
- Add 1/4 tsp sage for a nice floral back flavor
- Add 2 Tbsp chopped bacon for a smoky, meaty addition
- Add 2 Tbsp sour cream to add a sour note
- Add 1 tsp (or more) of regular sugar to add a sweet back note
- Add 1/4 cup of minced celery (Get out the food processor again!)
- Add 1/4 cup de-seeded tomato, cut into very small pieces
- Add 1/4 cup chopped, and towel dried roasted peppers.
- Add 1-2 Tbsp finely chopped pickles to add an extra zest (The Lady in Red is a fan of macaroni (and potato) salad pickliciousness.)
- Add 1 Tbsp finely chopped parsley or cilantro leaves for vibrant fresh flavor


Nutritional Information Per Serving:

This analysis is based upon a 1/2 cup serving.

Calories: 266
Fat: 20 g
Carbs: 18 g
Protein: 2 g
Sodium: 320 mg
Sugar: 3 g
Potassium: 0 mg
Cholesterol: 10 mg
Vit A: 87% (of daily)
Vit C: 12% (of daily)
Calcium: 1% (of daily)
Iron: 1% (of daily)
Fiber: 1 g


*NOTE: These figures are only estimates.  They are provided as-is and may be inaccurate depending on individual ingredient choices and measurements.  This should be used only as a general assessment.  This is not intended to diagnose or treat any ailment or deficiency, but to provide an estimated nutritional profile.  The term (“of daily”) is based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Ingredients:

3/4 box spaghetti or soba noodles  (I have a hard time finding soba noodles where I live, so I generally use spaghetti noodles and it works just fine.)
1 bunch celery (ends trimmed off & discarded, chopped into 1/2 inch chunks)
1/2 pint button mushrooms, sliced (or you can use canned mushrooms if you can't find nice fresh ones) (optional)
1 scallion, diced
4 - 5 oz. fresh sugar snap peas, sliced lengthwise into strips
1/3 lb. shrimp, cooked, peeled & deveined (It's ok to cheat and get the frozen ones already cooked & cleaned for you.)
2 oz. grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons salted butter

Instructions:

1.  Boil a VERY large pot full of salted water and cook pasta according to package directions.

2.  During the last 5 minutes of cooking, add the celery, mushrooms, sugar snap peas, and shrimp to the pasta in the boiling water.  This process lets you unfreeze your frozen shrimp and/or warm them up if you need to.

3.  When the pasta is al dente, drain the entire contents of the pot into a colander.  Do not rinse.

4.  Place everything in a large bowl and mix in the butter and Parmesan cheese.

5.  Serve on plates and garnish with scallions.

Serves 4 - 5.

Once you try homemade pasta, you won't ever want the store bought kind again.


Ingredients:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fleur de sel (or other flaky or semi-course salt)  (you could grind kosher salt - that would work)
cornmeal for dusting finished pasta so it doesn't stick



Instructions: (I used a Kitchen Aid mixer.  You could do this by hand, but why?):

1) Put all ingredients EXCEPT the cornmeal in the mixing bowl.  Mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds using the regular flat beater attachment.

2) Switch to dough hook.  Mix on speed 2 for 2 minutes.

3)  Knead dough by hand on counter, folding dough over, gathering it into a ball, pushing it down with your knuckles and the heels of your hands.... it's a great workout.  Do this for 10 minutes.

4)  Form dough into a ball and cover with saran wrap so it doesn't dry out.  Leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes.  Have a glass of wine! ;)

5)  Cut dough into 4 equal pieces.  Take one piece to work with and re-wrap remaining dough in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

6)  Use your pasta machine to get dough to desired thickness.  Cut pasta using pasta machine.

7)  Put a thin dusting of cornmeal on a baking sheet.  Place cut pasta on the baking sheet.  Dust top of pasta with cornmeal, lightly.

8)  You can dry pasta for 10 minutes by hanging it over the back of a chair or using a pasta drying rack.  Whatever floats your boat.

9)  This recipe makes 1 lb. of pasta, so continue to work through the remaining 3 quarters of dough making pasta, and when you have enough drying for dinner, take the remaining sheets of pasta after they are cut and dusted with corn meal and coil the strands into a nest.  You can freeze the pasta nests wrapped loosely in waxed paper and gently placed in a ziplock bag for up to a month.

10) To cook the pasta, have a LARGE pot of salted water, rapidly boiling on the stove.  Add the fresh pasta and stir it a little at first to prevent the pieces from sticking. Fresh pasta cooks in 2 minutes.  Drain it, and add sauce.  Do NOT rinse the pasta if you plan on using it immediately.  The starches help the sauce stick.  If your sauce isn't ready as soon as the pasta, rinse the pasta gently in cold water in a collander so it stops the cooking process and the noodles don't stick to each other. You will have to reheat it later with the sauce.



Notes:

There are 2 kinds of pasta machines - the hand crank kind, and the kind I used that consists of attachments that you screw onto your Kitchen Aid mixer.  If you already have the mixer, it's cheaper to get the attachments and much easier so you have both hands free and don't have to use one hand to crank.  The Kitchen Aid pasta attachments come with instructions for using the attachments, too; and with any pasta machine, you want to start running the dough through setting "1", and work your way number by number all the way to either 7 or 8 (one of the thinnest settings).  You will want to cut the sheets of pasta as you get them thinner and thinner so they are more manageable to work with and not 3 feet long! :)  A sheet of pasta should be about 1 ft long before you attempt to run it through the pasta cutter attachment.  If it's longer than that, cut it, or you're going to have a hard time threading it through the cutter.

Ingredients:

2/3 box rotini pasta
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 large box* diced tomatoes, undrained  - or – 1 pint fresh cherry tomatoes, halved
2 cloves garlic, minced
2/3 can black olives
1 tbsp. lemon zest
6 basil leaves, chiffonade
4 oz. grated mozzarella
4 oz. grated parmesan
4 tbsp. olive oil (for sautéing chicken) + 1 tbsp. oil for heating garlic, tomatoes, and olives
Salt
Ground black pepper


Instructions:

1. Prepare pasta until al dente.  Drain, set aside.
2. Heat olive oil in a large, deep pan.  Salt and pepper chicken on both sides.  Sauté chicken in pan 2 – 3 minutes per side, depending on thickness of chicken.  (You want it tender and cooked thoroughly, not dried out.)
3. Place chicken on a plate to the side, covered with foil to keep it warm.
4. In the same pan you prepared the chicken in, heat tomatoes.  If using fresh tomatoes, press them with a spoon while cooking to slightly mash them.   Add garlic.  Stir until garlic is fragrant.  Add olives and warm through with the tomatoes and garlic until everything is hot.
5. Put pasta on plates.  Top each plate of pasta with a chicken breast.  Pour tomato-olive mixture over each piece of chicken.
6. Quickly sprinkle each plate with equal amounts of mozzarella and parmesan so the cheese melts.
7. Sprinkle each serving with lemon zest and top with basil.
8. Serve immediately.

 

Special Notes:


If you find that your pasta has cooled off too much before the chicken is ready, you can plate the pasta and chicken together and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds or so, then continue plating with the sauce and cheese.


* Why Canned Tomatoes are Bad for You (use fresh or boxed, please, because I care!)