Homestyle Chicken Bolognese Pasta 健康鸡肉番茄意粉

Little captain requested for pasta tonight, after searching my fridge, finally I found right ingredients to cook up this simple Chicken Bolognese. Guess what he said to me after taking few bites? "Mommy, this is the best dinner in the whole world! I like it so much!"

He may have over exaggerated but his action speak louder than word - he finished his entire plate of pasta and quickly top up for more. Something rare from my picky eater, so I'm pretty sure he enjoyed his dinner. 

It's really simple to prepare, what makes the different is the ingredient you used. I added celery this time and I like the extra crunchiness it brings (of course the extra nutrition too). But if you do not like celery, just skip it, this is really quite a nutrition packed pasta with all the fresh ingredients used.

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 15 min
Serving for: 2 big & 2 little ones

Ingredients:
1/2 packets fettuccine or spaghetti pasta (I mixed both)
1 canned tomato purée (475gm)

1 cup of stock or boiled water

2 cloves garlic 

1/2 large yellow onion

1/2 cup carrots (about 2 thumb size)

1 stalk celery

8 baby cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup of brown mushrooms, washed

1 palm size of minced chicken meat

1 teaspoon of anchovy powder (optional if using ready stock)

A dash of coarse salt

A dash of wolchester sauce

A teaspoon of oregano leaves

A dash of ground pepper 

The Making:

1. Season the minced meat with a dash of coarse salt and sesame oil, set aside. In the meanwhile, clean, peel all vegetables (except tomatoes) and chopped finely.

Prepare the bolognese sauce 

2. Heat up 2 table spoons of olive oil in a deep sauce pan, sauté the garlic till light brown then add in the onion, cook till it starts to turn transparent then add in the rest of the vegetables and lastly mushrooms. I choose to serve the cherry tomatoes as-is but you can add them in too.

3. Add the wolchester sauce, coarse salt, oregano into the pan, mix well. 

4.Toss in the minced meat bit by bit, then add the tomato purée, follow by a cup of water and anchovy powder. Let the sauce shimmers on medium heat for about 20 minutes with lid closed until its thicken.

5. In the meanwhile, cook the pasta in a pot of boiling water according to the time indicated on the packaging (between 10-13 minutes),drench the excess water and run the pasta under cool water to avoid them from getting soggy. Add a table spoon of olive oil and mix well. This will keep the pasta from stick together.

6. Toss the pasta into the sauce, let it shimmers for about 3 minutes, mix well and it's ready to serve.

7. Garnish with some fresh oregano leaf or cherry tomatoes, and some shredded cheese will be ideal too. it's a delightful feast to the eyes as it is to the tummy. 

Bon appetite!

Useful Tips!

• Double the portion of all ingredients and you can keep the extra Bolognese sauce for next cooking. Good to keep up to a week in the fridge. I stored mine in a glass jar, safe and practical.

• If you are working mom like me, you probably do not do market shopping on weekly or ad-hoc basis. To ensure I have basic ingredients for spontenous cooking, I usually buy few chicken fillets in one go, cut them into long stripes or mince them and store in individual plastic bags before freezing them. Each bag contains enough serving for 1 meal, so defrosting is really hassle free - just defrost the exact amount I need!

• when serving to my 20 months old, I cut the pasta into bite size using the kitchen scissor. This makes it easy for self feeding and less risk of chocking tool.