CHICKEN TETRAZZINI
TETRAZZINI IS A PASTA BAKE NAMED AFTER THE ITALIAN OPERA STAR LUISA TETRAZZINI. IT IS USUALLY MADE OF CHICKEN WITH SPAGHETTI IN A CREAMY WINE SAUCE, BUT HERE I HAVE DONE A LIGHTER, NON-CREAMY, ONE-POT VERSION.
FROM QUEENS TO DIVAS,
skilled cooks, bakers and cherished family members, women have been celebrated and memorialised in dishes for centuries. For those who love food, having a dish named in your honour must feel like a special kind of accolade or, at the very least, a bit of fun! Many of us might never have heard of Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova had it not been for the eponymous billowy meringue. While it’s not as romantic, mapo tofu is said to be so named for the age and pockmark scars of Mrs Chen who invented the dish which, in my opinion, is one of the best dishes of all time.
I have been inspired by some of these wonderful, evocative dishes to create my own versions of them, remembering and honouring a few of these remarkable women.
SERVES 4 / PREPARATION 15 MINUTES / COOKING 50 MINUTES
I like to use chicken drumsticks as they cook in just the right time. Most 900g packs have 7-8 drums, so if you want two each make sure you get a pack of eight. Or you can take the meat off the bones while the greens are cooking and stir it back through the finished pasta.
A 28-30cm casserole dish is perfect to fit the spaghetti. If your dish is smaller you can break the spaghetti in half before adding, but the dish will need to be deep enough to fit all the ingredients.
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
½-1 teaspoon salt (use lesser amount if your stock is salty) 60ml olive oil
900g (7-8) chicken drumsticks 1 small lemon, halved, sliced, seeds discarded 1 leek, sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
4 stalks fresh thyme
¼ cup chopped flat-leafed parsley 125ml dry white wine
500ml chicken stock
300g spaghetti
250g Swiss chard, silverbeet or spinach,
stems removed and leaves finely sliced 50g parmesan, grated
Crush the fennel seeds with the salt in a mortar and pestle or spice grinder until finely ground and set aside. Heat the oven to 200℃.
Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven or ovenproof casserole over a medium-high heat. Add the chicken drums and cook for about 10 minutes, turning them to brown evenly
– it doesn’t matter if bits stick, you just want some nice caramelisation for the flavour. Remove from the casserole dish and set aside.
Add the lemon slices to the pan and cook for 3 minutes to brown a little. Add the ground fennel seeds, leek, garlic, thyme and half the parsley and stir around to mix.
Add the wine, bring up to the boil and boil for 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring back to the boil then turn off the heat. Add the spaghetti, spreading it out and pressing down to submerge in the liquid. Add the chicken back on top, cover and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, gently stir through the greens, cover again and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
Remove from the oven, stir through the parmesan and remaining parsley and eat immediately.