Grape Tomatoes

Basil

I love to order from a menu. I’m good at it, but every once in awhile you have to eat at home. Tuesday was that type of night. With a limited budget and even more constrained skills I entered the local grocery store in search of ingredients.

In this instance, I think it is pertinent that I say that I live in the rural south but I know nothing about “down home cooking” except how to eat it. So when I saw that my local grocer was putting a line of feta cheese on clearance because they were going to stop selling it last week I was glad (for the bargain) and sad (because now I’m going to have to drive a bit further for feta). So, I knew that dinner would probably star my cheese find from the week before.

First stop was the produce department. My son, (a young teen with a similar pallet) spies the grape tomatoes and they are on sale (about $2.50). Okay, I think, but if there will be tomatoes, then I must have fresh basil (not on sale but doable at $2.79). Now we are going to need a protein. I found fresh chicken breast tenders on sale for $3.51. Perfect because they will cook up quickly and it’s getting late.

So after a rather long commute and a trip to the grocery store, I saunter into the kitchen without a hint of a recipe or a plan. The only logical thing to do is….wash the produce and prepare my pasta water. Maybe an idea will solidify as I prepare the veggies. So I wash my produce and then open the chicken to give it a good rinse as well. I put it in a bowl of salt water to wait for further action as I cut the tomatoes. When the tomatoes are done, I turn my attention to the chicken and pasta. I place about a half pound of vermicelli into the oiled and salted boiling water and I remove the tenders from the water and place them on wax paper to season. I take out the sea salt, peppercorns, cumin, and oregano from the spice cabinet and coat both sides. In my skillet I pour a healthy amount of olive oil and turn the temperature up. It is at that moment I realize that I had forgotten the garlic so I pull out 3 small cloves and quarter them and throw them in the oil. Just as they had begun to cook, I added my chicken tenders, frying them on both sides until a golden brown. Once they are done, I remove them and the garlic from the pan and place them on coffee filters to drain.

I look in the frying pan and I have oil and the crispy bits of chicken so I add about a tablespoon or so of butter and grab the white wine from the cabinet. They steam up in the pan and I throw the tomatoes in. As their skins begin to wrinkle a bit, I toss the cooked pasta into the mixture along with my fresh basil. The pasta/tomato combo is then placed in a casserole dish with the chicken layered on top. I crumble my feta in last, close the dish and call the family to the table (I know how long it takes them to come when called so the feta had a good chance of beginning to melt). We all put some on our plates and even my hardest to please pallet seemed satisfied. My mom asked me what it was called…I still don’t know.