From the Cook's Illustrated "All-Time Best Pasta Recipes" issue, this recipe comes together surprisingly easily; it takes a while but is not particularly complicated. It was also a huge hit! Everyone finished their bowl and went back for seconds, even Alex.

As written the recipe uses chicken breasts. We used imitation pea-protein chicken; no-one would mistake it for real chicken in either taste or texture, but it's tasty in its own right and can generally be used in the same places you'd use chicken meat. Use either as the mood takes you.

For noodles, the book recommends penne, ziti, or campanelle. We did it with cavatappi and that worked excellently. I suspect that rotini would also be a good choice.

The proportions on this, intuitively, look a bit weird. There's half as much pasta as usual, twice as much chicken as pasta, and three times as much broccoli. With the cavatappi, at least, this worked fine, although I think that doubling the pasta would also have worked ok at the cost of increasing the starch:everything else ratio.

Pasta with Chicken and Broccoli

Cook's Illustrated

Ingredients

• 60mL unsalted butter
• 450g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, halved lengthwise and then sliced into strips
• 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 10mL fresh thyme (or ~7mL dried)
• 10mL all-purpose flour
• 1mL red pepper flakes
• 500mL chicken or vegetable broth
• 250mL dry white wine
• 250mL freshly grated parmesan
• 250mL (~1 jar) sliced, oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained
• 15mL fresh parsley
• 657g fresh broccoli, florets cut into ~2cm pieces, stems discarded
• 225g dry pasta
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Melt 15mL butter in a large skillet or dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add chicken in a single layer and cook, without stirring, until browned around edges, 1-2 minutes. Stir and continue to cook until cooked through, 2-3 minutes. Remove to plate.
2. Reduce heat to medium and melt another 15mL of butter. Add onion and 1mL salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly browned, 5-7 minutes.
3. Add garlic, thyme, flour, and pepper flakes, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30-60 seconds.
4. Add broth and wine, bring to a simmer, and cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened somewhat and reduced by half, 15-20 minutes.
5. Add parmesan, tomatoes, parsley, chicken, and remaining 30mL butter and cook until chicken is heated through and butter is melted, ~1 minute.
6. Season with black pepper to taste.
7. Meanwhile, boil water in a large pot. Add broccoli and 15mL salt and cook until crisp-tender, ~2 minutes. Remove broccoli, but keep water.
8. Return water to a boil and add pasta. Cook until al dente. Reserve 125mL of pasta water and drain pasta.
9. When sauce is ready, add broccoli and pasta and toss to combine. Adjust sauce thickness with reserved pasta water and serve.