Italian Recipes

Try this homey recipe, it combines the Succulent. Juicy. Tender baked chicken and the fine taste of little pasta or pastina.

Ingredients

• 1 cup pastina pasta (or any small pasta)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup cubed chicken breast (1-inch cubes)
• 1/2 cup diced onion (about 1/2 a small onion)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes with juice
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 tablespoon butter, plus more for buttering the baking dish

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the pasta and cook until just tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Drain pasta into a large mixing bowl.

Meanwhile, put the olive oil in a medium saute pan over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook for 3 minutes. Add the onions and garlic, stirring to combine, and cook until the onions are soft and the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Put the chicken mixture into the bowl with the cooked pasta. Add the canned tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parsley, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Place the mixture in a buttered 8 by 8 by 2-inch baking dish. In a small bowl mix together the bread crumbs and the Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over the top of the pasta mixture. Dot the top with small bits of butter. Bake until the top is golden brown, about 30 minutes.

(Photo via tasteofhome.com)

If you want to amaze your friends with another mouth watering authentic Italian cooking, here is a good quality recipe that only requires a few basic ingredients. It is simple and delicious and economical to make. A combination of mussels and potatoes called Cozze e patate.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1 Kg (2.2 lb) Fresh mussels
• 1 Kg (2.2 lb) Potatoes
• 4 Eggs
• 60 g (2 ½ oz) Parmesan or Pecorino cheese (grated)
• A small bunch on flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)
• 1 Fish stock cube
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt and black pepper for seasoning

Preparations:

Take a deep pan and spread some olive oil in the bottom. Slice all the potatoes, making slices 2- 3 mm thick, and sprinkle with black pepper and drizzle again with olive oil. Then Prepare some fish stock. Dissolve one fish stock cube in 450 ml (¾ pt) of boiling water. Now, put the pan on low heat and add a couple of ladles of fish stock. Next, cover with a lid and steam the potatoes for about 15-20.

Meanwhile, chop the parsley. Break the eggs into a small bowl and stir with a fork. Add the parsley and parmesan cheese; season it with black pepper and a bit of salt. This will be your cream sauce for the mussels and potatoes

Now it’s time to cook the mussels in a pan with olive oil and garlic. Then stir so that all the mussels are coated with the garlic flavored oil. Once it is cooked, you can set the steam potatoes in a pan with the cooked mussels on top and bake in the oven for 15-20mins at 200 degrees Celsius.

Enjoy and Serve with a glass of white win

(Photo via italyum.com)