Everyone in my family has seen this pasta dish time and time again, and I swear each time we love it more & more. If that’s even possible! Everything about it is honestly just super satisfying, even though it is super simple. It takes just under thirty minutes to prepare from start to finish, and believe you and me.. it will be totally worth it! This is a dinner party must have! Even if you’re deciding on grilling some delicious tenderloin that’s paired with cool, creamy horseradish to serve along side of it, you still need this pasta as a delicate little add on! Pasta is just something that no-one can resist, and I adore so many countless things about it from the different colors, and shapes, and just the unbelievable ways you can style them with endless ingredients! If you’re choosing to even have a themed dinner party where you’re going for a true tuscan style on the sun deck; encouraging everyone to dress in Italian countryside clothing, than this is exceptional for that! It’s savory, lemony, buttery, cheesy, and just oh so delicious that you’ll want to make it immediately for dinner tonight during sun down!

You’ll want to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, or tenders, and cut them into tiny bite sized pieces. Before sautéing the pieces on medium-high heat using a pad of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil, you’ll want to roll the chicken in seasoned flour. The reason we’re doing this is so the protein can become brown and crispy, with almost a fried-like texture on the outside, without over cooking it. As soon as the chicken has the appearance you may transfer all of it onto a holding platter.

• We will put the chicken back in later. It’s not a crime to leave the chicken in the pan, but in the case of doing so, you can surely risk the chance of overcooking, and that’s something nobody wants to do!

Once you remove the chicken from the pan, coat the entire bottom of the pan with a few gulps of olive oil, and three tablespoons of butter. This will be the beginning to our silky, scrumptious sauce that’s going to coat ever single tube of rigatoni pasta.

• For flavor additives, and textured goodies, dice a small jar of roasted red peppers, and two scallions.
• MEANWHILE: Boil rigatoni noodles for eight minutes, or until Al dente (to the tooth). 

On top of the Italian colored veggies (if you can’t tell that’s the theme here) 😉 .. toss in an entire can of rinsed chick peas/garbanzo beans. Whichever way you like to call them. 🙂

• Add in salt, pepper, and garlic powder to taste. I think seasonings are always important to give that big punch of flavor. I mean.. imagine making buttered noodles with no seasonings, herbs, or good parmesan cheese. That is completely and utterly just not right! Lol.

Once everything in the pan begins to get translucent, and the chick peas start turning color, throw the chicken back into the mix!

Throw in two huge handfuls of fresh, bright green spinach. You don’t have to do any chopping what so ever. Just let the heat from the pan do the trick!

After the spinach, place a pad of butter on top of all the yumminess, along with 1/2 cup of chicken stock. The chicken stock is going to made our sauce extremely savory, and succulent. Also, you’ll absolutely want to squeeze in the juice of half of a lemon.. depending on how big the lemon actually is.

Now for the pasta! The star of the show because lets be real.. there’s no pasta without some perfectly cooked rigatoni.

 As soon as the hot pasta enters the pan, make sure to add a heaping handful of parmesan cheese! There’s not an exact measurement with this.. just make it as cheesy as you would like! When we add cheese over hot pasta it’s ensuring that it will stick to every single noodle, leaving it extra cheesy, and flavorful with some salty goodness along with that.

For the finishing touch that makes this pasta dish the ultimate one, add fresh cubed mozzarella. I used a half of a block, but you can use the whole ball if that’s the one you have choose to use.

Garnish this perfect pasta dish off with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and chopped parsley. I always feel like you need to top pasta off with cheese at the very end. Not only do I feel like you should do it, but it’s most definitely a necessity Diamonds! Do not skip the extra cheese! You can never have too much cheese, right?! 😉

Pasta is the best thing ever to experiment with! It is for sure a door opening to so much culinary creativity because you can put almost anything in it, and it will be amazing! Diamonds.. this pasta is going to look gorgeous bowled up on your dinning room table for an elegant family dinner, or perfect accompanied with some cabernet sauvignon on your back porch for a little you time, listening to nature. Whichever way you want to spin it.. this pasta will surely leave you wanting another bowl of it!

XOXO