Mar 29, 2011

Simple Pasta with Small Organic Plum Tomatoes

Our neighbor gave my parents some small organic plum tomatoes the other day -


Even though these tomatoes are not as large as the regular plum tomato,
These tiny jewels still look so full and yes, they are indeed very juicy!


Tomato is considered as a "cold" ingredient when you eat it raw,
What do I mean by "cold?"
Well, try it yourself,
If you eat a lot of uncooked tomatoes, your body temperature will actually drop a few degrees, thus make you feel - cold.

That's why my mom gave me half of the tiny plum tomatoes,
But I don't wanna get that chilly feeling after munching on it too, so that's how this dish was born, simple pasta with small organic plum tomatoes -


*Tomatoes can actually make you feel "warmer," by raising your body temperature if they are cooked, preferably with olive oil!

Ingredients (4 to 5 portion)?

1 package/500g of any type of short pasta
1 small bundle of thin asparagus
1 small lemon
2 cups of small plum tomatoes
1 1/2 cups of chicken breast
1 cup of corn
1/2 medium sized onion
1 tablespoon of drained capers
1 tablespoon of ketchup
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
Some olive oil
Some sea salt
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some parsley

How?

Let's prep the ingredients first,
Peal the onion and cut into small bite sizes,
For the asparagus, discard the bottom stem part and cut the remaining into smaller pieces,
Cut the plum tomatoes in half,
Cut the chicken breast into small bite sizes,
Finely chop the parsley and set aside.

Bring a big pot of water into a boil,
Toss in few pinches of salt, pour in the pasta and cook according to the package instruction, al dente preferably.

Meanwhile, have a big pan ready,
Drizzle some olive oil, toss in diced onion, sprinkle some salt, pepper, and red chili flakes,
Cook till the onion turns slightly burned on the edges, add the chicken.

Toss in all the tomatoes when the chicken is about 70% cooked through,
Season with more salt and pepper, cook for couple minutes.

Now we can add the asparagus and corn, give the whole mixture a quick stir,
Add 1 tablespoon of ketchup and a little bit more salt,
Mix it up, let it cook till the veggies soften,
Don't cook for too long if you prefer a more crunchy texture for the asparagus.

Few more final steps,
Add in the capers and juice of 1 lemon.

The pasta should be ready by now, drain well and pour into the sauce mixture,
Mix well and cook for another minute or two,
Serve with chopped parsley.


This is my hearty brunch!
The tomatoes are fully cooked through and blended into my sauce mixture,
Chilly tomatoes no more!

Cindy's Rating: 7

2 comments:

  1. More lycopene from tomatoes too when cooked! :) I did not know raw tomatoes does that to the body temp.!

    ReplyDelete
  2. To Tigerfish~
    Yeah I saw a TV show monitoring people's body temp when eatig too much raw tomatoes, kinda interesting!

    ReplyDelete