Hi folks, it's me . . . the Chef Formerly Known as G. However, I have recently discovered the joys of Italian cooking and I got to thinking I might need a new name. It would have to be a name that sounds Italian, even though I don't have one iota of Italian ancestry. (Mrs. Chef G. does though, so maybe that gives me some Italian cred.)
It would have to be a name that proves I've spent spent a few hours intensely studying that country's cuisine. To be sure, I've looked at a few on-line recipes and I've watched some episodes of cooking shows featuring the food of Italy. Those television shows were hosted by my fellow celebrity chefs Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali. I learned a lot from them. I learned to take my time and pay attention to detail as I cook. I learned that Italian cooking is not just pizza or pasta smothered in spaghetti sauce. I learned to appreciate the value of locally sourced ingredients. I learned that Mario confessed to being a sexual harasser after he suddenly resigned from his show.
So I came up with a few good Italian names for myself:
- Chef Michelan-G-lo
- Chef Leonardo da Vin-G
- Chef Quentin Taran-G-no
- Chef Frederico Felli-G
- Chef Martin Scor-G-G
When all was said and done, I settled on Chef Boy-ar-G in honor of the most famous canned food chef of all time. Think about it. His Beefaroni, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Beef Ravioli in Meat Sauce, and Pizza Maker Kits are legendary in the processed food business.
Lets get to my recipe, shall we? What I'll be making today is a very basic, very traditional, Italian meal that is made in Italy every day by real life Italians.
And the only ingredients are Roma tomatoes and yellow onions grown in Minnesota, garlic grown in California, Italian virgin olive oil that seems to have a mix of Spanish and Portugese olive oil mixed in, Italian flat-leaf parsley grown who-knows-where, Minnesota chicken breast, and the best imported Italian pasta I could find at the Hy-Vee store.
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| I made the pasta al dente according to package directions, but with a little olive oil and extra salt. |
Someday I really want to make my own pasta, but for now these spaghetti noodles, a full 24" long, made from course-ground semolina, are going to be the next best thing.
The next thing to do is to heat up some olive oil in a fry pan, add one chopped up chicken breast, and saute until browned. Remove the chicken and wipe the oil from the pan.
Add fresh olive oil to the same pan, add the chopped onions, and saute them for a few minutes. Add the garlic and saute that stuff for another minute.
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| Looking good already. Smelling even better. |
Add the tomatoes, parsley, and previously cooked chicken. Season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Stir in the pasta. Then it will look like this:
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| It looks DE-licious. |
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| Serve it in a bowl and it looks even DE-liciouser. |
Chef Boy-ar-G signing off, and thank you for watching.
Hey, Chef G, this looks like a very simple but tasty dish. I will try something similar to this on my new camp stove. Do you have any camping recipes to share? I would like to expand my repertoire and learn from an expert!
ReplyDeleteHi Emily, thanks for the message. It's the first one I've had in a while, though that's probably because I haven't written here for a while. Now you've given me an idea for a new episode--a camping recipe. Just for you, I'll try to tailor it to bike camping. (My car camping recipes are heavy on grilled meat.) I must admit, however, that when I'm on a bike tour, my cooking isn't very fancy. Think, lipton soup or ramen packets with extra meat & vegetables thrown in. But if I was cooking for someone other than just myself, I think I could come up with something decent. I'll think about that for my next post.
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