Farmer’s Pasta for Those Picky Eaters!

Howdy! It’s time for another recipe! Woohoo! This is my version of a Farmer’s Pasta that I had at this fabulous Italian restaurant (I can’t remember the name) when I lived in Springfield, IL.

Their version included a homemade sauce, but I am all about short cuts, especially when they taste yummy and are a crowd pleaser 🙂 My short cut is the jar of pasta sauce, it is Roasted Garlic Parmesean flavor, sooo good!!

Ingredients:

• 1 lb short cut pasta, any you like, I use Cellantini (corkscrews)
• 1-2 chicken breasts
• 1 cup of parmesean cheese
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 2-3 tomatoes (really any kind you like, I like to use cherry tomatoes and cut them in half too)
• 1 jar of Ragu Roasted Garlic Parmesean sauce
• 3-4 potatoes
• McCormicks’ garlic pepper grinder (you all know this is my favorite!)
• olive oil for drizzling the pans

Chop up your potatoes, pepper, and tomatoes.

Chop up your chicken as well.

Drizzle two pans with olive oil, heat to medium. Season the chicken and the veggies with your garlic pepper and some salt. Brown in separate pans; cooking times vary greatly!

 This is what happens when you multitask while trying to cook 🙁 Potatoes and pepper in the trash!!!

But it is ok!! I had not chopped my potatoes as small as I wanted the first time, sooo second time is a charm! The smaller you chop the potatoes, the faster they cook and are done all the way through without burning the outside.

This is how the potatoes and green pepper looks perfectly browned. I used to add the tomatoes in at this point, and you can, but it makes everything a pinkish color. Also, add the chicken in because it will have been done long before these veggies and just hanging out waiting.

Add the sauce and the cheese on top of the veggies and chicken to warm the sauce and make everything start to come together as one dish.

Next, add the pasta directly from the boiling water. No, don’t dump all the water in too! I use a hand held pasta strainer thingy (very specific, I know). If you want to strain the pasta by dumping it all in the strainer, that is fine! Just make sure to save some of the pasta water to add to the entire dish because the starch in the water helps loosen up the sauce and make everything all cheesy and gooey and delicious!

If you haven’t already added the tomatoes, add them now on the top!

Isn’t this just gorgeous?!! My mouth is watering!

Oh hey, one more thing: do you remember my Four Ingredient Garlic Cheese Bread post? There it is in the picture below! I told you I ALWAYS make it with a pasta meal and sometimes just all by itself 🙂

I hope this recipe has inspired you to try a new dish and add your own twist! The best thing about a Farmer’s Pasta is that you can just throw whatever vegetables and/or meat you have at home into one big, scrumptious dish! You can make it vegetarian by omitting the meat or you could add different peppers, potatoes, etc. The varieties are endless!

Bon Appetit!

Keep Calm and Cook On,