Chicken Penne with Pink Sauce Recipe

When I was working in an Italian restaurant in Los Angeles in college, I learned to make pink sauce for pasta. So this is my recipe creation for Chicken Penne with Pink Sauce Pasta that I want to share with you. (I still haven’t decided if red or white wine goes better with this dish. Maybe you should try both types and let me know :) 

I love to cook this at home while wearing my apple red apron with some music going in the background. Currently my favorite cook book in my kitchen is Everyday Italian by Giada De Laurentis.

INGREDIENTS:

1 package penne pasta  (hint: you can also use wheat pasta)
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 package of button mushrooms (chopped)
3 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
2 lemons
1 cup of sun dried tomatoes
1 glove of garlic
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of ground pepper
1 jar of marinara sauce
½ cup of Alfredo sauce

DIRECTIONS:

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add salt to the water for taste. Cook pasta for about 10 minutes or until al dente. While pasta is cooking squeeze lemon juice over chicken breast halves and then cut chicken into small pieces. Pour olive oil into the saute pan. Now add your chicken to the saute pan over medium to high heat for about 10 minutes. While chicken is cooking sprinkle salt and pepper to taste. After about 3 minutes add mushrooms to the same sauté pan. (Watch the chicken carefully and stir frequently.) Then add garlic and onion to the pan. Lastly add sun dried tomatoes to the pan and stir all of the ingredients together. Remove from heat. (Cut the center of the chicken to make sure it’s not pink inside.) 

After pasta is cooked, place in a strainer and then put penne pasta back into the medium saucepan. Add all of the ingredients (chicken, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes etc.) into the sauce pan with the pasta. In a separate bowl add the marinara and Alfredo sauce together. Your sauce should turn pink in color. Yummy. Now pour yourself a glass of wine for all of your hard work. I suggest a Pinot Grigio.

Your almost done. Over low heat pour the sauce into your medium saucepan and mix everything together. (Ingredients, pasta and sauce.) And voila you are all done. This makes 4 servings so I save some and have leftovers. What side dish would you make with this recipe? Tell me what's your favorite cookbook?