This recipe was inspired by the Leggo's jar of creamy garlic and sundried tomato bake! My fiance loves it and we have been buying the jars for years, so that he is able to cook something half decent (instead of always toasted sandwiches when I'm not around!). My thermomix friend & mentor (bigTcup) came over recently for dinner and I think she was appalled that we were using a jar.. hehe! And rightfully so! She read out the ingredients which seemed pretty basic, plus all the preservatives and numbers of course. I resolved to try and remake the sauce from scratch using fresh ingredients, and the result was amazing! Even my fiance couldn't fault it and said it tasted just like the real thing!
So excited... this is my first 'made up' recipe using thermie. Very big thank you to Quirky Jo (quirkycooking) and judydawn for their recipes! The fact that I didn't have to use cream in the sauce made me very happy, as it is now a much healthier version! Now I just have to figure out a way to get the 'melted cheese' on the top of it without it being dairy - and without the fiance being too upset!
You could easily make this just a pasta sauce with chicken and no cheese on top for a dairy free option of course
Hope you like it!
Creamy (non-dairy) chicken, garlic & sundried tomato bake :Serves number of People: 6Ingredients:250g spiral pasta (could use gluten free for a GF version)
4 big cloves of garlic
10g of EVOO
10 sundried tomatoes
approx. 1.5 cups of judydawn's Napolitana Sauce:
http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=6255.0 approx. 1 cup of Quirky Jo's dairy free sour cream:
http://quirkycooking.blogspot.com.au/2009/08/dairy-free-sour-cream-substitute.html2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
about 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese.. if desired. Could possibly try a dairy free version of this too, but I was happy with just the sour cream being substituted this time around. Will try a dairy free topping next time!
Preparation:Bring the pasta to boil in a saucepan and cook until al dente (is that right?!), I cooked mine for about 10 mins. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees.
Whilst the pasta is cooking, brown the chicken in a frypan with a light spray of oil - about 6-8 minute - don't overcook as it is going to be baked too! Then make the sauce:
1. To make the sauce, in a clean and dry thermie - turn the speed to 8 and drop the garlic cloves through the lid. Once minced, turn off and scrape down the sides.
2. Add EVOO and saute the garlic at 100 degrees for 2 minutes, speed 1 with the measuring cup off.
3. Add the sundried tomatoes and whiz on speed 8 for 10 seconds, depending on how chunky you would like your sauce.
4. Add the Napolitana sauce and sour cream, then cook for 6 minutes, 80 degrees, speed 2
To assemble:
In a casserole dish, add the drained pasta, chicken and half the sauce - then stir well. Top with grated cheese and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Serve with a garden salad!
The remaining sauce can be stored in the fridge, ready to use next time! (Or in my case, ready for the other half to be able to use without me here!)
Photos:Oops... it was gobbled down before I could take a photo! Next time
Tips/Hints:I actually made this with leftover napolitana sauce that was a bit of a failure - as I originally halved judydawn's recipe to make the sauce but failed miserably by only halving some of the ingredients! The result was a very salty napolitana sauce - so when I made this pasta sauce I added a tin of chopped tomatoes to break it up a bit which worked like a charm. Tasted like the real thing!
members' commentsJakodai - I made this and it was really nice. It almost seems a little dry to look at, so I was a little worried but taste-wise it was delicious. I will definitely be making this again but I think I'll use sour cream or cream instead of the non-dairy alternative as we don't have any dietary restrictions. I think this might make a difference with the dry-ish look of it. Thanks Kim!
cookie - It was delicious. I did make a couple of changes. Instead of Quirky Jo's sour cream I used natural yoghurt. Also instead of mixing the sauce and cream together and then only using half, I simply used half the quantity to mix together. This will definitely be made again.
