Cook to Impress: Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Oven Dish

This recipe is not your standard student-serving one-dirtcheap dinner. However, it is a good, relatively easy recipe to impress your friends, roommates or parents.

If you've read our previous post on how to save money [here], you know that eating with your roommates or friends, rather than alone, saves money. This would be the perfect recipe for just those occassions!

Serves 4, takes about 40min

Ingredients
350g pasta shells, rigate or farfalle
250g broccoli
2 tbsp olive oil
350g chicken breasts, thinly sliced
175g mushrooms (Tip - use chestnut mushrooms for extra flavour)
4 tbsp sundried tomato paste
80g soft cheese with garlic and herbs (like Boursin)
250ml single cream (or sour cream or cooking cream)

For the topping:
spring onions, finely sliced

mature cheddar, or cheese of choice
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
TIP - add 50g of flaked almonds.

- Preheat the oven to 190C, 170C on a oven with a fan or gasmark 5.

- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Throw in the pasta, stir well and return to the boil. Cook for 6 minutes, during which cut the broccoli into very small florets and slice the stems very thinly. Add the broccoli after the 6min and cook for 5 - 6 minutes more until the pasta is just cooked. Drain well, then return to the pan.

- Heat the oil in a wide pan, add the chicken pieces and fry until lightly browned. Tip in the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, then stir in the tomato paste, cheese and cream. Gently simmer, stirring, until the cheese has melted to thicken the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

- Pour the sauce over the pasta, stirring gently until coated, then tip into a shallow ovenproof dish (about 1.7 litre capacity) and level the top.

- Mix the spring onions, cheddar, garlic and almonds (optional) for the topping and sprinkle over the pasta. Bake for 20 minutes until golden.

Pricetag*

- Penne Rigate, 500g; €0,91 -- 350g; €0,64

- Broccoli, 500g; €1,09 -- 250g; €0,54

- Chicken breasts, 2 ca. 380g; €3,04

- Mushrooms, 400gr; €1,39 -- 175gr; €0,63

- Sundried tomato tapenade; €1,72

- Fresh cream cheese with herbs, 125gr; €1,36 -- 80gr; €0,87 

- cooking cream, 250ml; €0,60

topping:

- AH spring onions, 3; €0,99

- AH grated cheese, 48+, 175gr; €1,69 - 80-90gr; €0,89

- clove of garlic, €0,05 - €0,10

- (optional) almond slices, 55gr; €1,55

TOTAL:  €9.97 - €11.57 

Per person: €2.49 - €2.89

*Prices and products come from dutch grocery store, Albert Heijn, and may differ in your area or in different stores.