May 2, 2023 Lunch - Worst Italian ever. Dinner - Great pasta, shallot, zucchini, and chicken in wine, cream sauce

 May 2, 2023 Lunch - Worst Italian ever. Dinner - Great pasta, shallot, zucchini, and chicken in wine, cream sauce

What a day of contrasts in almost the identical dish conceptually, pasta and a vegetable with chicken in a cream sauce.

Rahim picked up lunch and we ate and then worked.

He ordered take out from Saggio’s new take out restaurant.  I think Rahim likes take out because he can call or text in an order and drive by to pick up.

There were two dishes a reasonably good sautéed shrimp and bay scallops on a bed of creamy rice.  The other was the worst pasta dish I have ever eaten.  It penne pasta Alfredo with chicken and green chili.  The green chili was so thick it overwhelmed the dish.  I tried to pick out the green chili but it was everywhere.  I ate a few bites but it was painful.

I had sliced two Persian cucumbers and filled a bowl with seaweed salad because Rahim had mentioned bringing sushi, so we ate some fresh vegetables.

After a few minutes of work I had to excuse myself to go to the toilet because my body blew it out.

We finished at 3:00 and I rested until Suzette came home.

She went to Costco and bought pita chips, mixed nuts, and a whole roasted chicken.

We decided to make chicken, zucchini, and pasta in a cream and white wine sauce. Conceptually similar to the chili Alfredo, but with a better pasta and fresh sliced zucchini instead of chili.

I sliced two zucchini into thin slices like they had sliced the zucchini I ate at Carlucci’s the day before and three cloves of garlic and a shallot.

Suzette boiled a wonderful thick semicircle curved pasta that we like very much.

She sautéed the shallot, garlic and zucchini in butter and olive oil and ground some dried basil into a powder and mixed it with grated Parmesan cheese and added it to the sauté.

Suzette then sliced some of the roasted chicken and added it as well as White wine and cream to make a light cream sauce and then tossed the cooked pasta in the sauce.  This is a common dish we prepare but the addition of thinly sliced zucchini was revelatory because the zucchini becomes somewhat like a sauce as it integrates into the sauce.  At Carlucci’s butter was the emulsifying agent. Tonight the wine and cream and butter and olive oil was the emulsifying agent.

We learned a new recipe for Italian dishes, using zucchini as a sauce enhancer.

Bon Appetit