Pasta is almost always my default ingredient when I don't know what I want to eat for dinner. It can be a really dressed up or simply tossed with olive oil, chili pepper flakes, parsley and parm. Sometimes I like to make an in-between effort. I made this sun-dried alfredo pasta for a friend of mine who was visiting. I started to make plain chicken alfredo but then spied a jar of sun-dried tomatoes. I've used the Classico Sun-Dried Alfredo sauce before and really loved the flavor that the sun-dried tomatoes gave to the sauce. I figured that creating a similar recipe from scratch wouldn't be too difficult.
Sun-Dried Tomato Alfredo Pasta
8 oz of your favorite pasta
1 boneless skinless chicken breast
1 cup broccoli, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 roma tomato, diced
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan
1 pint heavy cream
1 tsp olive oil
Boil a large pot of water. Add chicken breast to water and boil until cooked. Remove chicken from water. Slice the chicken and set aside.
Add pasta to the chicken water and cook according to directions on package. In the last 3 minutes of the pasta cooking, add the broccoli to the pot. Drain, but do not rinse.
While the pasta is cooking, prepare the sauce.
In a large sauce pan, sautée the garlic and sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil over low heat for about 1 minute. Blend the sun-dried tomatoes and garlic with the heavy cream until smooth. Add the cream mixture back to the pan and turn heat up to medium. Stir frequently until sauce barely starts to simmer, about 10-15 minutes. Turn off heat. Add the pasta, broccoli, diced tomatoes and chicken to the sauce and stir. Add parmesan and toss thoroughly. Serves 3-4.
Not exactly as quick and easy as the Classico sauce, but close enough and it was yummies.