Getting Creative with Spaghetti

Jason and I have spaghetti quite often so we like to be original with it. Sometimes we just have regular spaghetti with tomato sauce, sometimes we add lots of veggies and chicken, and sometimes we have a "spaghetti bake" casserole. The other day we used another Cooks Illustrated recipe - Lemon Spaghetti. We liked the lemon spaghetti a lot and so tonight we used the same recipe but replaced the lemon ingredients for some broccoli and spices. It was definitely another hit! Here is the recipe, you should try it :)

Tasty Broccoli Spaghetti with Chicken

1 Chicken breast

1 lb spaghetti

1 large bunch broccoli, cut into florets

Extra virgin olive oil (at least 1/2 cup)

1 Shallot, minced

4-6 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons dried basil

1/8 tsp dried red pepper flakes

Salt

Pepper

Optional: pine nuts (1/8 cup)

1. Begin to cook chicken breast in skillet with olive oil.

2. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large dutch oven over high heat.  Add 1 tablespoon salt and pasta to boiling water; cook until pasta is almost done (about 2 minutes of cooking time left). Add the broccoli to the pasta and cover. Cook for 2 minutes, until broccoli and pasta are just barely tender (al dente). Being sure to reserve the cooking water, drain pasta in colander. If desired, toss spaghetti with a little olive oil to prevent stickiness.

3. Once chicken is done cooking remove from pan and set aside. Place the shallot and garlic cloves (and more olive oil if needed) in skillet and cook until tender. (If using pine nuts cook in skillet until brown at this time). Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup reserved cooking water to skillet. Return to heat, add basil, red pepper, black pepper, and salt, stir and cook until slightly thickened.

4. In the empty dutch oven place heavy cream and 1 cup reserved cooking water; bring to simmer and cook 2 minutes. Remove pot from heat, add pasta, and stir until coated. 

5. Stir in shallot/spice mixture and parmesan cheese into spaghetti pot. Cover and let pasta stand 2 minutes. Stir well. (If desired, add more reserved cooking water to spaghetti for desired consistency.)

6. Serve with chicken. Have extra parmesan cheese and oil and salt and pepper ready to serve the spaghetti with.

So filling and so yummy!