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This is my own take on a chunky pomodoro sauce. I love to order pasta pomodoro when we go to Zio’s Italian Kitchen because it’s one of the lighter items on the menu, but it is always a bit bland so I end up adding extra olive oil, parmesan cheese and crushed red pepper flakes right to the bowl in the restaurant. I decided to create a similar dish at home and I have made it several times since, because it’s a huge hit in this house and whenever I’m preparing it, everyone gets ridiculously excited and says, “are you making that pasta with the chicken and tomatoes?” I’m the only one around here that knows anything about sauces or cooking, and I know they won’t remember anyway, so I just reply, “yes.” I know what they mean and they know what they mean and as long as they are happy, I am happy. That’s how it works!

My dish has a lot of extra flavor between the wine, capers, crushed red pepper flakes, fresh basil and fresh parmesan cheese. The dish is still pretty light, because there is no butter or cream and it is the perfect summertime pasta dish. It’s easy to multiply for a larger group and really doesn’t take long to prepare, but it tastes like it took a lot longer to make and is easy to transform into a vegetarian dish by just omitting the chicken.

Start by cutting boneless chicken breasts into bite-sized chunks seasoned with some salt, pepper and crushed red pepper flakes and sauté them in olive oil until they are cooked completely (no pink.)

Chicken for Pomodoro Pasta

While the chicken is cooking, chop up some basil and Roma tomatoes and grate some fresh parmesan cheese. It’s so important in this dish to use fresh ingredients. Fresh ingredients always make a difference, but especially in this particular dish. One of the greatest things about cooking yourself is that you know what you’re eating. You can control the quality and quantity of the ingredients.

Tomatoes Basil Parm

Red, white and green. Reminds me of something. What could it be?

stock-footage-creased-italian-flag-in-slow-motion-with-visible-wrinkles-and-seams

I’m stumped, I just can’t figure out what it is.

Anyway, remove the chicken from the pan and add more olive oil and crushed garlic and allow the garlic to soften, then add the white wine and cook until the wine reduces by about half and add the chicken stock, tomatoes and capers and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

Chunky Pomodoro Sauce

If you’re not familiar with capers, they are shaped like mini peas, but have a pickled flavor and they add such a great punch of flavor to this dish. I really enjoy them with pasta.

Capers

After the sauce is heated through, add the chicken back in and then add the cooked pasta, chopped basil and grated parm and toss until combined. I prefer to toss all of the ingredients together versus serving the pasta and then topping with the sauce.

I hope you enjoy this recipe! If you give it a try, please come back and leave a comment and snap a photo and tag #ketchumkitchen on Instagram.

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