Creamy Penne Pasta
Africook vérifié
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This is a creamy chicken and pasta dish with no country named in the source, though several details place it in a Nigerian kitchen rather than an Italian one. Seasoning cubes, a garlic and ginger paste, and fresh peppers rather than dried herbs are all markers of West African home cooking applied to an Italian format. That kind of adaptation is common and worth taking seriously rather than dismissing. Pasta has been widely eaten in Nigeria since the mid twentieth century, and what Nigerian cooks do with it tends to follow Nigerian logic: a pepper base, seasoning cubes, and whatever protein is to hand. Jollof spaghetti is the fullest expression of that; this is a milder one, closer to its Italian starting point. The technique that carries it is the pasta water. Starchy water from the pot is used to loosen the cream into a sauce that clings to the penne rather than sitting under it, which is a genuinely useful thing to know and applies to almost any cream or cheese pasta. Mozzarella is stirred in to melt rather than scattered on top. No heritage claim is made here because the source makes none, and it is flagged for a decision on how it should be classified.
Heat a pan with oil over medium heat, add the chopped onions and sauté until translucent.
Add the garlic and ginger paste and sauté for about a minute until fragrant.
Add the shredded chicken and cook until no longer pink and cooked through.
Pour in the cooking cream and a little pasta water to create the sauce, and stir well to combine.
Add the chopped peppers and cook for a few minutes until slightly softened.
Add the seasoning cubes, being careful not to over-salt since the cheese adds saltiness of its own.
Sprinkle in the mozzarella and stir until melted into the sauce.
Gently fold in the cooked penne until well coated.
If the sauce is too thick, loosen it with more pasta water.
Garnish with parsley flakes and serve hot.
Notes personnelles de Sobecooks7 avis
im making this tonight for dinner, do you recommend Maggi cubes for the seasoning cubes or just standard chicken bouillon? also wondering if heavy cream works as cooking cream here
Chale, go with the Maggi cubes oo, standard chicken bouillon won't give you that proper depth paa. For the cream, heavy cream works just fine, but if you are here in the UK like me, double cream is even better, just keep the heat low so it doesn't split.
Sauce turned out way too runny when I poured in the reserved pasta water alongside the cooking cream. Next time I'll hold back on the water completely. Tasted decent with the fresh peppers though.
Never thought to combine ginger paste with cooking cream for a pasta dish before, but it completely cut through the heavy richness. Kids loved the melted mozzarella over the shredded chicken.
I added extra fresh habanero because my husband likes heat, but using garlic and ginger paste with the cooking cream was just perfect. The mozzarella made it stretch well o. E sweet die!
Chale 50 minutes cook time is a bit long if the chicken is already cooked and shredded oo. I finished my sauce in like 20 mins. But that ginger paste in the cream gives it a very nice kick paa.
Totally agree, 50 minutes is way too long once the chicken is already sorted! Took me about twenty minutes as well. That ginger paste really makes the cream sauce though, had to pop down to an international supermarket in Cardiff to track some proper stuff down, but it was well worth the trip.