Little hats off

There's a delightfully thick pasta I discovered that I'm very excited about. To Italians, orecchiette, or Little Hats, is a well-known pasta that is typically served with broccoli rabe and tomato sauce. Although the name of the pasta on the bag I bought was Little Hats, the direct translation of orecchiette is Little Ears.

Since moving to New Haven, I've learned a lot about Italian food. And it's not just because Connecticut has the largest Italian population in America (what, you didn't know?) Rare, imported pastas and other Italian foods make their way into the aisles of my local grocery store. Also, Tom is half Italian. Through his family I've learned new names of pasta, tried new dishes, and learned Italian food is far from a quick, simple meal (my previous impression.)

I wish I could say the dish I made was with homemade orecchiette, but I wasn't up for the task. The ingredients are simple enough, but it takes a certain finesse I've not yet acquired to shape the tiny pasta's rounded edges thicker than the middle. One day...

I served the pasta with a salad, pan fried chicken and my first homemade cream sauce:

• In a saucepan on medium heat, saute finely chopped onion and garlic in white wine, then add salt and pepper. 
• Pour in a cup and a half of heavy cream and two tablespoons of butter. 
• Continually stir the sauce with a wooden spoon until it thickens, then add chopped parsley (finally got to use my new herb window boxes!) 
• Toss the strained pasta in the saucepan, coating it
• The chicken breasts were simply coated in flour and fried in oil. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Surprisingly enough, Smart Balance makes an oil that fried beautifully (I'm trying to be healthy...And I was out of olive oil.) The chicken was crispy on the outside and full of juicy flavor on the inside. Mmm, mmm!