Pasta stew with chicken and tomatoes. This was a less ambitious version of a Catalan dish (fideus a la cassola) in which the noodles are cooked like a risotto with a combination of sausages, chicken pieces, tomatoes, peas, onions, and chicken broth. The full recipe would be good for waking up the senses on a cold winter day. I didn’t have many of the ingredients, so I started by cutting up some chicken thighs and cooking them in the pan I used for stews, though if I had one I would use the traditional cassola (Spanish cazuela), which is a casserole pot that’s brought to the table when everything is finished. I also had no chicken broth, so I used beef broth instead, which added a dark flavor to substitute for the pork. After I sauteéd onions, garlic, and two tomatoes, I added the broth along with a picada (almond, garlic, and parsley, crushed in a mortar), then poured in the pasta and cooked through until the broth was absorbed. It’s best with thin, macaroni-sized noodles. The tomatoes will mostly disappear into the broth, as will the almonds and garlic, leaving the principal flavors invisible.
(Photo: Paper birches, Brookside Gardens.)
365 Days of Food 