Along time ago, when Brian and I were dating seriously, our favorite place for a nice dinner was an Italian restaurant up on Park Rd beside the old Red Cross building called, Carlos. At the time it was, in my opinion, the best Italian restaurant in Charlotte. It had a diverse menu that wasn’t all red sauce and garlic. It is also one of the first places we dined in that I realized I knew enough about the food I ran into frequently to start picking the recipes apart. From Carlos came my linquine and clam sauce, the tastiest of garlic breads and what was my personal favorite on the menu, Chicken Sorentino. I have no idea how the Sorentino differentiated this chicken from any other chicken but it was a great dish with complex flavors, roux based and silky perfect. In hindsight, I should have know that the restaurant was doomed when they cheapened it up using cream of chicken soup as the sauce base. Alas, Carlos is no more, but before it passed into the annals of culinary history, I did manage to recreate the Chicken Sorentino which is generally in my house known as Pepperoni Chicken.
Here’s a great Italian Menu for dinner, dinner with friends, a great buffet or when you need to take a cool appetizer to someone’s house.
Tuscan Beans. The inspiration for this has come from several restaurants and while I’ve never been able to duplicate a recipe exactly, I’m very happy with this and you will be too. Great thing about it is its really a confit an if you keep it covered in oil, you can leave it on your counter for a couple of days. I think this is a perfect thing to serve at the holidays when your fridge is bursting at the seams. It’s also a great thing to take to a hot summer picnic because it doesn’t have anything in it that needs to stay cold to keep from giving you some retched stomach problem.
1 can Cannelini beans well rinsed
½ medium onion minced
1 Tb Minced Garlic
½ cup sun dried tomatoes, packed in oil, minced
2 TB of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes
Several Grinds of Pepper
1 TB Dried Rosemary, crushed
¼ tea fennel
Pinch of crushed red pepper
1/3 cup of olive oil
1 good splash of red wine vinegar.
Put everything in a shallow pan or skillet. Bring to a boil. Stir. Turn off the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. When ready to serve, strain out the beans and serve with garlic bread (see below) Take the left over oil and pour it back into the jar of sun dried tomatoes.
Pepperoni Chicken. We call it this because most of the time I have left over pepperoni in the freezer but traditionally it should be made with prosciutto. I’ve also made it with pancetta. Honestly most dried meats or sausages would work but I wouldn’t make it with cured bacon as that would be too overpowering. Now, before we get to the recipe I want to caution you. Do NOT have a heart attack when you see how much olive oil the recipe calls for. Seriously, calm down. This recipe will easily make 2 9x13 inch casseroles and can feed anywhere from 18 – 24 people depending on what and how much you serve with it. Freeze one of the casseroles for later use, or do as I do, make it in one big ½ sheet pan dish and have people over for dinner!
2.5 # Chicken Breasts, cubed
½# prosciutto, pancetta or ½ a pillow pack of pepperoni shredded
All purpose Flour for dredging plus 2/3 – ¾ cup for making the roux
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 Tablespoon minced garlic. Here’s a note. I used the jarred stuff. If you want to use fresh feel free.
1 Tablespoon dried rosemary, crushed
¾ cup Olive oil, divided
1 cup red wine
8 cups stock (chicken, vegetable or light tomato)
3 oz tomato paste (this is ½ of a small can. To freeze the other half, pat flat on some cling wrap, wrap it up and stick in the freezer.
1# Penne
8 oz of shredded mozzarella
Put a goodly amount of flour in a plastic grocery bag, season with salt and pepper and add the chicken cubes, fluff around until the chicken is coated. Here’s a hint, make sure your chicken is completely defrosted if frozen and always pat it dry so it doesn’t use a ton of flour.
Preheat a big skillet. The secret to getting food not to stick in a pan is this. Hot pan. Cold oil. So let your pan get warm, add ¼ cup of olive oil and sauté the chicken cubes until golden. You may have to do this in batches so add a little bit of oil with each new batch. When it’s all done, remove from the pan. Add the prosciutto, rosemary and garlic and sauté for a few minutes. Remove from the pan. Add the remaining ½ cup of olive oil and 2/3 of a cup of all purpose flour. Stir continuously to make the roux until the color is just past peanut butter. Be sure to scrape up all the tasty bits on the bottom. A note about roux. Roux is one tricky SOB. You’ll be stirring an stirring an nothing is going on, turn your head and the next second it’s burnt and burnt roux can not be saved. Keep an eye on it so it doesn’t fool you!
When the roux is the right rich color and smells nutty delicious, deglaze the pan with the wine then add all the stock. Bring to a low boil. The thickening properties of roux don’t kick in until it’s boiled. Add the tomato paste and simmer for 5 minutes until it is thick but not gloppy. Think motor oil. You want this on the soupy side as you’re going to bake it in the oven with pasta and if it’s too dry or stiff in the pan it will be paste with the pasta! Add the chicken and prosciutto back to the pan and simmer for 5 -10 minutes until the chicken is cooked.
While this is going on, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil and add the penne. Cook for 7 minutes. You do not want this fully cooked or it will be mush in the casserole. Drain it. Add it to the chicken dish stirring well to mix. Now, you can either split this between two casseroles or put it in one big one. Cover with the cheese and bake at 350 for 30 - 45 minutes or until golden brown and your house smells like pure sin!
Salad with A selection of dressings (See dressings later on – luring you in to buying my cookbook!)
Garlic Bread. This will make enough garlic butter to do one big baguette or two little ones. If you have leftovers, don’t worry, keep it in the fridge, you’ve just made a composed butter that would cost you a bundle in a store. You can toss it with hot pasta and a little cream or just keep eating garlic bread. In my house, garlic bread has its place on the food pyramid! And as I found out at Carlos, you dip this into your glass of red wine, honey, you will die from a flavor fit!
½ cup butter or margarine, softened. Honestly? I use margarine for this. I like the taste better and it’s easier to mix
2 TB Garlic Powder
1 TB Italian Seasoning
1 good squeeze anchovy paste
Mix it all together and lightly spread on bread. Now you can either split the bread down the length and then cut into pieces after it’s cooked but since I’m having this with an appetizer and the appetizer is going on the bread I like to slice it down the length of the loaf in diagonal ¼ inch slices. Diagonally cutting the bread will give you more slices per loaf with more surface area. Run under the broiler for a few minutes until golden, flip and cook for another minute or two but keep an eye on it so you don’t burn it to bits!
If you have to have dessert, a nice lemony gelato will suffice. Or if you want to kill yourself and your friends, hazelnut chocolate soup but you’re just going to have to wait on that recipe….trust me…it’s worth it!
Ciao!
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