chicken ragu

This Healthy Chicken Bolognese swaps out ground beef for lean chicken thighs. The chicken thighs are slow-cooked in a red wine and vegatable tomato sauce and tossed with aldente whole-wheat spaghetti noodles for a healthy take on a classic bologonese sauce.

Chicken Bolognese

olive oil

lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs

onion

carrot

celery

garlic cloves

tsp kosher salt,

red wine (I

tomato paste

tomatoes

water

tsp sugar

basil

cheese rind

lb whole-wheat spaghetti

Heat a large dutch oven over a medium heat. Add oil. Season chicken thighs genrerously with salt and pepper on both sides. Once the oil is hot, add the chicken to the pot. Sear until golden brown, flip and sear on the other side. Remove from the pan and set aside. Leave any residual fat in the pan.

Add onion, carrots, celery, garlic, and 1/2 teaspoon salt to the pot. Saute over a medium heat until slightly soft and fragrant, about 3 minutes.

Pour in red wine and use a wooden spoon to scrape up all the bits at the bottotm of the pan. Stir in tomato paste. Stir in strained tomatoes, water, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, sugar, basil, and parmesan cheese rind. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Place the chicken back in the pot, turn down to low and cover with a lid. Continue to cook for another 25 minutes.

While the sauce cooks, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil.Season with salt. It should be as salty as sea water.

Once the sauce has simmered for 25 minutes, drop the pasta in the water. Give it a stir.

While the pasta cooks, remove the chicken from the pot, use two forks to shred. Add back to the pot and give it a stir.

Once the pasta is just under aldente, use tongs to transfer the pasta to the sauce. Reserve pasta water. Add 1 cup of the pasta water to the pasta and sauce. Remove the parmesan cheese rind. Toss everything together over a low heat. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with shredded or grated parmesan cheese.

This beautiful homemade braided pasta is a traditional pasta from Sardinia where it has been made since the 16th century. The free-range chicken sauce is also traditional and together they are a unique pasta dish that your family and friends will fall in love with! Definitely worth making!

Homemade lorighittas with chicken ragu. A traditional recipe from Sardinia

300 g durum wheat semolina flour ((10.5 ozs))

ladles warm water

salt

kg free-range chicken ((2.2lbs)

garlic (peeled and choppped)

glass red wine

tomato pulp

parsley

rosemary

bay leaves

sage leaves

extra virgin olive oil.

g Pecorino ((3.5 ouncess))

Boil some water, measure out 2 ladles, add a generous pinch of salt and let the water cool slightly. It still needs to be warm when making the dough. Put the semolina flour into a bowl, add the warm salted water a bit at a time whilst using your hand or a fork to mix the flour and water together. Once you have a ‘dough’ turn it out onto a lightly floured work surface. I use a wooden pastry board. You may not need all the water as you don’t want it to be very wet.

Continue to work and knead the dough until it is soft, supple and just slightly tacky. Roll it into a ball and then wrap it in a sheet of cling film or a cotton kitchen towel and let it rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature.

When you are ready to make your lorighittas, cut off a small piece of the dough and stretch and roll it with the palms of your hands until you get a strand with a diameter slightly larger than a strand of bucatini. (also about the size of a US size 3/ UK size 10 knitting needle!) Don’t worry if a bit bigger. You’ll get better at it. Mine were quite thick. My hubby’s were better! The important thing is the strands don’t break.

Roll the strand around the index, middle and ring fingers of one hand making two loops, join the two ends by pressing with your fingertips to obtain a double ring, then intertwine the two rings on themselves to obtain a single braided ring. (Hold the rings where they are joined then gently take one ring and weave it in and out the other). Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Place the ready lorighittas on a floured tray or cotton kitchen towel until you have made them all.

Make your homemade lorighittas

Cut the chicken into relatively small pieces (quarters if using small birds). Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Chop the rosemary, parsley, basil and sage.

Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a heavy pan (I used my Dutch oven) and brown the chicken pieces on both sides. You may have to do it in batches. Add the bay leaves, finely chopped onion, garlic and rosemary and continue cooking for a few minutes, then add the red wine and let the alcohol evaporate for a few moments.

Add the tomato pulp/passata and a teaspoon of sugar, season with salt and pepper and cook covered over a low-medium heat for at least 1 hour. Once the chicken is cooked, add the coarsely chopped parsley, basil and sage to the sauce. Mix everything together. Cook for a couple more minutes. Remove the chicken pieces from the sauce before adding the cooked pasta.

Make the free-range chicken ragu

Add the pasta to a pot of boiling salted water. Stir gently to stop it sticking to the bottom and then wait for pasta rings to rise to the surface. Depending on the thickness of your lorighittas, they should be ready 2-3 minutes after rising to the surface. Try one before removing them all. You may have to cook the pastai n batches not to overcrowd the pot. In that case, remove the ready pasta from the water using a slotted spoon. Add it to the sauce and cook another batch.

After adding the cooked pasta to the sauce. Mix carefully and plate with a chicken piece or two per person. Serve with grated Pecorino (preferably Pecorino Sardo)

Finish and serve.

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Chicken Bolognese

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