Chicken and Zukes

Everything sounds so much more exciting in Italian. Last night, I made Zucchine a Scapece (pg 74 of Rome). Fry thin rounds of zucchini in olive oil until they're golden and soft. Mix them with raw garlic, salt, red wine vinegar, and mint leaves (though i used basil, because I didn't have mint), then let them sit in the fridge to cool for half an hour.

These missed the mark for me. Italians are very good at frying vegetables (I'm thinking of  you, eggplant) so that they're creamy and perfect, and you don't feel like you're eating three cups of olive oil, even if you are. As I ate these zucchini, I felt like I was eating three cups of olive oil. It lubed up the whole inside of my mouth and throat. Ew.

Conclusion: Just okay. I wouldn't make this again.

That chicken tastes better than it looks.

However, Petti di Pollo in Padella was both excellent and easy. Score! There are some overly fussy instructions that I ignored. "Remove the small fillet (tender) from the chicken breast and save it for another use." For real? I don't think so. I left my breasts intact (that sounds wrong). I also used a box of chicken broth, rather than making it from scratch.

Marinate the chicken in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, bay leaf, salt, and pepper, for two hours. In my case, they marinated for two days, with no detrimental effects. The instructions say to use a bit of the marinade to oil the pan you'll cook the chicken in, but mine turned to blood clot consistency as soon as it hit the hotness. Ew. I wiped it off, used a swirl of olive oil, and carried on. After five minutes per side and a few minutes of sitting, I had perfectly salted, juicy, rosemary-flavored chicken breasts. Add chicken broth to the pan, scrape up the browned bits, then pour over the sliced chicken breasts.

Conclusion: Loved it. Perfetto! Matt rarely comments on dinner, but he went out of his way to compliment this.