Here's something I made to make some meals for the week. Chicken and pasta in a nice tomato sauce.
I am making a good amount, but you can scale the ingredients and it will turn out fine.
3 Cans San Marzano tomatoes. Make sure they are actually from Italy.
Meat from one chicken
1 pound of pasta (doesn't matter what you use, but you want something fairly bite-sized)
9 Tablespoons olive oil
3 medium onions
12 cloves garlic, crushed
1-1/2 tsp dried oregano
1-1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
Red Pepper Flakes (optional)
Cook the pasta ahead of time. When straining, rinse with cold water so it stops cooking, then put drained pasta in a container for later.
Cut the chicken into small pieces, and set aside for later.
Mash the tomatoes into a puree. Use your hands, an immersion blender, whatever. You don't want very large chunks of tomato, but its ok if there are a few. That just makes it more homemade-ish. Add this to a good sized pot with the sugar. Cover and heat on low to medium-low.
While the tomato sauce is heating up, cut the onions into small pieces and put them in a non-stick pan along with the olive oil. Cook over medium-high heat until the onions start to turn translucent.
Turn the heat off and add the garlic and oregano (and however much red pepper you want, if you are so inclined. Remember you can't take it back out. You can always add more later) and cook stirring for about a minute. Dump all this into the pot with the sauce and stir it in well. With a good non-stick pan, there shouldn't be much of anything that stays behind.
As the sauce heats up and starts to percolate, it will want to splash out of the pot. Keep it covered until the tomatoes start to break down and settle towards the bottom a little. You'll know because the bubbling will be less splashy.
Keep cooking, uncovered, for at least an hour. Stirring from time to time and taste for seasoning. Remember after you stir it, its gonna wanna splash out of the pot when it boils. Cover for a few minutes to let the solids settle out again and uncover. You really want it just bubbling. Any hotter and you'll take a chance of burning the sauce, which will turn your sauce into compost fodder.
When satisfied the sauce is ready, stir in the baking soda and stir it in thoroughly (helps neutralize some of the acid from the tomatoes; in theory, anyway). Mix in the chicken and pasta. Cover and let it sit while you figure out what the hell you're going to do with all this food. As for me, I ladle it into pint sized ball jars, let them cool, and put em in the freezer.
I didn't try it this time, but I think next time i'm gonna stir in a good amount of shredded Parmesan and/or Romano cheese into the sauce. Cheese as a seasoning could definitely work here.
Can you just add the chicken and pasta right at the start?
Chicken, maybe. It will probably start breaking down and falling apart if it cooks too long, though. Pasta, no. It will turn to mush.
Don't like onions? No problem. Just make sure not to cook the garlic too long. You don't want to brown it.
Sauce not thick enough? You can either continue to cook it, letting the water evaporate off, or you can add some tomato paste. If it starts to get too thick, just add some water.
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The pasta is something that caught my eye on the shelf when getting some cold medicine today. Looks weird, I know.
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Final yield: 8 Pints with a bit leftover in the pot. Ate that for dinner.
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It's turned out a bit more acidic than I would have liked. Should have cooked it another half hour or so, also I forgot to add the baking soda. Might just sprinkle a little in each jar after heating them up.
Overall, pretty cheap and satisfying meal.
They are 12.99 a pound. Well this is a no brainer for me!
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