Pasta with Chicken Breast, Zucchini and Tomatoes

I never knew what I was getting into when I planted 3 tiny zucchini plants last May. As recommended by GardenWeb members I have planted 3 seedlings on top of mound that was around 8” in diameter and 3“ high. Now it occupies area about 3 X 6 feet! And are they ever prolific! I had to find all kinds of uses for this great summer squash and one of our favorite ones is wide pasta noodles with sautéed onions, garlic, zucchini and tomatoes. Very quick and light summer meal.

Ingredients

1 small chicken breast cut into thin strips

1/2 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced 1/4” thin

2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 Tbs. Olive oil

1 Tbs. Balsamic vinegar

1 Tbs. maple syrup

2 Tbs. chopped fresh basil or parsley

Salt and pepper

Wide noodles, penne or fettuccine
1tbs butter

Directions

Cook pasta according to package instructions, drain and toss with butter and keep warm. While the pasta is cooking heat olive oil in frying pan and sauté chicken breast pieces that were seasoned with salt and pepper for about 10 minutes or until light golden brown on all sides. Add onions, garlic, zucchini and tomatoes and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Season with balsamic vinegar, pinch of salt and pepper. Drop cooked pasta into frying pan with sauce and toss till pasta is well coated with the sauce. Garnish with chopped parsley or fresh basil and serve.

San Marzano Tomatoes

San Marzano tomatoes were my biggest discovery and surprise in my garden this year. It is a paste tomato that is considered in foodie circles as the best variety grown for making sauce or paste and it has a fanatical following judging by articles and blogs on the Net. Jason L Morrow even started blog dedicated to this gem called, what else, San Marzano Tomato Blog. What an incredible article! It is worth reading to the end. It even has a recipes for sauces etc.
Anyway, I am hooked and it is one variety that I will grow every year from now on. I have planted only 2 seedlings that I started indoors from seeds bought from Thompson  & Morgan seed company. Problem is/was that packet had 300 seeds! Three Hundred Seeds!!! That’s for a farm and not a hobby gardener like me. It is even too many to give away. Until now I have harvested about 18Lb from both plants and I still have at least 6 weeks of growing season left. My freezer will be full of bags with sauces!

Here is a picture story of San Marzano tomatoes from harvest to freezer.

After quartering  7 pounds of  tomatoes for food processor there was hardly any juice on cutting board, that’s how dry they are, no need for hours of reduction on the stove.

This is straight from Cuisinart, check how thick the sauce is already.

The sauce after 45 minutes of simmer. No rapid boil is needed since tomatoes do not have much water.

After the simmer I used food mill fitted with smallest holes plate to remove skin and seeds.

All done in ONE hour!  I freeze the sauce in large freezer bags and just break apart small piece I need for whatever I cook.

Tomato Sauce

I have to admit that until two weeks ago I have never made or tasted pure tomato sauce. I have made hundreds of tomato sauces but they always had at least celery, peppers, onions and garlic in them. This was my very first time that I have made tomato sauce from my very own tomatoes with absolutely nothing else: no salt, sugar, onions, peppers, garlic or any other vegetables. Just tomatoes, slowly simmered for 4 hours (in this case) and then run through the food mill with the finest plate (1/16” holes). What a revelation it was! Mind you, I did make tons of sauces before using store bought tomatoes plus other veggies but since I have never grown paste tomatoes like Roma I had no opportunity to make basic sauce of my own. Now, I am hooked. Right after I have tasted the sauce I started Googling for San Marzano Lungo tomato seeds that have the reputation as the best paste tomato. Yup, I bought some and now my plans for veggie garden is going through some changes, at least in my mind, that is. My plan for next year was for only 3 tomato plants: one of each “Sweet Baby Girl” (cherry), “Magic Mountain (size and shape of large strawberry) and “Margherita” (Roma). Since San Marzano is meatier and dryer than Margherita I have decided to go with 4 Marzano instead and the salad tomatoes stay the same, 1 of each.

There is not recipe here as far as I can see.

Cut tomatoes in half and then half again, put in pot, cover, and start the simmer. Stir tomatoes every so often to help them release juice but keep cooking it covered. After 3 hours I removed the cover (I never used pressure cooker locked cover) and let reduce to fairly thick consistency, stirring more frequently. Never let it burn!

When there is very little liquid visible at surface it is time to run it through food mill. I don’t know about any other substitute for food mill besides China Cap strainer (Chinoise). (Now we are talking hard labor here! I used Chinoise when I went to George Brown College’s culinary arts courses back in 1970’s and we had to make all sauces by hand, no food mills and no food processors, just large Chinoise. It is not fun!)

Food mill removes the seeds and tomato skin.

I started with 4 quarts (4L) of tomatoes that gave me 4 cups (1L) of thick sauce.

Since it was 30 °C outside I have decided to make the sauce on my BBQ side burner so I won’t heat up the house. Unfortunately, the BBQ burner doesn’t have too much of a heat control plus if I run it low the wind can blow off the flame. Compromises. Also, towards the end of making the sauce, when the sauce thickens, it is very easy to burn. Because it is much more likely to burn in thin bottom pot I have decided to use my pressure cooker pot because it has very thick bottom. It all worked like a charm.

When done, you have a great basic tomato sauce to be used for many other sauces.

My first sauce was simple spaghettini sauce where I sautéed onions, eggplants, celery, red pepper, garlic (lot of it), hot pepper flakes and oregano for 15 minutes, added the tomato sauce and simmered for 30 minutes on low. Done, no straining or mashing, I like some texture in this sauce.

It looks like I might buy some Roma tomatoes at our farmer’s market to make some more sauce, it is that good!