Bon Appetit Meal, June '08

The meal Toast picked for this month was a wonderful combination of tastes and textures.

Farfalle with Chicken, Tomatoes, Carmelized Onions and Goat Cheese
4 to 6 servings

This pasta is loaded with appealing flavors: sweet onions and tomatoes, tangy goat cheese, earthy spinach.

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large red onions, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons Sherry wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
8 ounces farfalle
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
6 heirloom tomatoes, cored, chopped (about 5 cups)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (from 1/2 rotisserie chicken)
1/2 cup thinly sliced basil leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh marjoram
3 cups baby spinach
3 ounces soft fresh goat cheese, crumbled

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; sprinkle with salt and cook until beginning to brown, stirring often, about 8 minutes [probably actually went about twice that long]. Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in vinegar and sugar; cook until onions are browned, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Transfer carmelized onions to bowl; reserve skillet.

Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain.

Add wine to reserved skillet. Boil until reduced to 1/2 cup, 3 minutes. Add pasta, onions, broth, and next 4 ingredients. Season with salt and pepper. Stir over medium heat to warm through, about 3 minutes.

Divide spinach among plates. Spoon pasta over spinach. Top with crumbled goat cheese.

This was a nice recipe. It was easy, but the prep work took a while - that's a lot of onion and tomato chopping. I used a chardonnay as it was the only white I had on hand and I used on-the-vine tomatoes instead of heirloom (Dude, heirloom tomatoes are expensive!). It turned out just fine with these two alterations.

The flavors were very fresh and light. You can easily get away with adding more chicken. That would only be a benefit. I used 4 ounces of goat cheese instead of three and probably could've done with even more. Mmm, goat cheese.

This recipe makes a lot of food. I did the full boat as we like leftovers in this family. Well, Toast had a helping and a half for dinner, I had one helping for dinner, then we still had 3 lunches from it (1 large one for Toast, two smaller for me).

All in all, a very good choice. Let me know if you try it and what you think.