Ask a Chef reveals the secrets of those superb dishes you ate in cafes and restaurants and wanted to try yourself.
Ingredients
1 cup penne pasta
½ chicken breast, sliced
2 thinly sliced portobello mushrooms
2 rashers cooked bacon
⅓ cup cream
1 Tbsp basil pesto
1 cup baby spinach
pinch of salt
shaved parmesan to serve.
Method
Using a medium saucepan, cook the pasta according to packet instructions and set aside.
Brown the chicken pieces and add mushrooms and bacon. Keep cooking until mushrooms are soft and chicken cooked through.
Add the cream, pesto, spinach and pasta.
Fold pasta through the sauce until the spinach is wilted and the dish is heated through.
Season.
Serve in a warm bowl and finish with shaved parmesan.
Requested by Mairi Hurring of Balclutha.
This recipe comes from Lana Topia, chef at The Good Oil in George St, Dunedin.
• If you have enjoyed a dish in an Otago cafe or restaurant and would like the recipe, write to Ask a Chef, Features, Otago Daily Times, PO Box 181, Dunedin, fax 474-7422, or email odt.features@odt.co.nz, including your name, address and a daytime telephone number, and we will request it.
