My mom had a small Italian cook book. I was in in my tenth grade when I saw a recipe of stuffed chicken breasts with mozarella and tomatoes in this book. We were quite conservative in our cooking then and the only Italian recipe we ever warmed up to was the pizzas so this book was left unattended for years. Those were days when risotto, fettucini and tiramisu sounded alien to me. My trip to Italy three years ago made me fall in love with the Italian cuisine. I can relate to Gilbert when she raves about the culture of food and eating in Italy in Eat, Pray, Love. We Indians are proud of our varied heritage that is often showcased in our variety of flavours but Italians have a deep passion for food which makes cooking a celebration. I have witnessed this on many occasions when I visited Italian homes. The passion and ease with which the Italians cook makes the atmosphere jovial and celestial at the same time. I remember my friend Maria asking me if I liked bread and on my nod tossing a well kneaded dough into her bread maker, which in 20 minutes magically came out as a Ciabatta. Making bread was always a chore to me but to Maria even that was magic. My initiation to cooking a risotto was by Diego and his friends (all drunk) who poured in beer into the risotto and told me that was how the best risotto was cooked.
Now that's celebration to me, the leisurely, lazily way of cooking which contrasts to the methodical , serious business like mindset we have when it comes to cooking. I could be wrong but then Italians are also considered extravagant and lazier than many other cultures- which by the way Diego thinks is what jealous people call their celebration of life. So getting back to my main track I encountered this long forgotten recipe at Maria's home and I can still recall how heavenly it felt tasting the tender, juicy chicken which burst in my mouth with flavours of cheese and sun dried tomatoes. Back in India, I added basil, thyme and rosemary to my spice cabinet along with the solitary oregano. I waited for an opportune moment to create this dish that I savoured in Venice. And after 3 years and 9 months of waiting I got to create this recipe I had read 14 years ago. Now that's what I call - 'a moment of history'.
Have you ever longed to make something so badly and felt at peace having made it? That's what I felt last Saturday.
Ingredients for Chicken breasts stuffed with mozarella, sundried tomatoes and basil
Chicken breasts- 4
Sun dried tomatoes- 25 gm
Tomatoes- 2 diced finely
Mozarella- 50 gms
Basil- 6-8 leaves
For side dish
Baby carrots- 6-8
Baby corn- 6-8
For Sauce
Onion-1
Sugar- 2tbsp
Thyme- 1 tsp
Red wine- 1/4 cup
Directions
Wash the chicken breasts and place them in brine (salt water) for an hour. Meanwhile finely chop the sindried tomatoes, mozarella and tomatoes.
Roll the basil leaves together and chop them finely. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and season with salt.
Now take the chicken breasts and create a pocket by inserting a knife into the centre of the breast going right through the end creating a small pocket. Fill the stuffing into the breasts till the end.
Season the breasts with some salt. Heat some oil in a pan and fry the breasts till they are brown.
Now prep them for baking. I crumpled some aluminum foil , you could place the chicken on a cooling rack and keep the rack onto a tray. The point is to not let the bottom of the chicken get wet which is going to happen when juices start oozing out from the chicken under the oven heat. So make provisions for providing this from happening. Bake the chicken for 20 minutes at 180 degrees. Since we've already cooked them on the pan 20 minutes in the oven will cook the chicken completely.
I decided to have some steamed vegetables along with a wine reduction sauce to go along with the chicken. You are free to have some mashed potatoes or garlic bread if steamed vegetables don't appeal you. But for those interested in the sauce and vegetables this is what I did. I steamed some baby carrots and baby corn for ten minutes in a steamer.
For my sauce remember the pan in which we fried the chicken it had some fat so I sauted my onions in this pan and added some thyme and salt when the onions softened and then added the wine and let the sauce simmer till it got reduced to a thick gravy.
For Plating I sliced the baked chicken once cooled after the twenty minutes in oven and placed it on a plate with some vegetables on the side. I, then poured the sauce over the chicken slices and around the plate. And there ends my dream harbored for long 14 years.
I decided to have some steamed vegetables along with a wine reduction sauce to go along with the chicken. You are free to have some mashed potatoes or garlic bread if steamed vegetables don't appeal you. But for those interested in the sauce and vegetables this is what I did. I steamed some baby carrots and baby corn for ten minutes in a steamer.
For my sauce remember the pan in which we fried the chicken it had some fat so I sauted my onions in this pan and added some thyme and salt when the onions softened and then added the wine and let the sauce simmer till it got reduced to a thick gravy.
For Plating I sliced the baked chicken once cooled after the twenty minutes in oven and placed it on a plate with some vegetables on the side. I, then poured the sauce over the chicken slices and around the plate. And there ends my dream harbored for long 14 years.
