I took a trip down to my local market recently to see what looked good and was really spoilt for choice. There were plump and juicy Victoria plums, bright red tomatoes on the vine, lettuces, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, fennel, cherries.... You get the picture.
While I wobbled home from the market having bought far more than I should I came up with an idea for a dish that would use up some of my newly acquired tomatoes. I was going to encrust a chicken fillet in parmesan and serve it with a tomato and basil sauce. Not only did it seem like a great way to use some of the tomatoes I had bought (way too many really) but I knew it would be delicious too!
The first thing I did was made the sauce by gently simmered cherry tomatoes with olive oil, crushed garlic, salt and a little sugar until they were very tender but still holding their shape. To prepare the chicken I bashed the chicken fillets flat with a rolling pin, a fantastic way to releive stress! I cooked the chicken on a lightly oiled very hot griddle pan for a couple of minutes on each side. To serve I put a fillet on each plate, stirred a large handful of roughly torn basil into the sauce then spooned it over the chicken.
What I really like about this dish is how quickly it all comes together, it's the perfect after work dish. I'm sure I will be making this reguarly from now on, for as long as I can get beautiful tomatoes from the market anyway...
13 comments:
Very nice, Sam. Similar to my tomato confit--don't you just love cherry tomatoes done that way?
Beautiful pictures! I love the look of the sauce with whole tomatoes and you can't go wrong with parmesan crusted anything.
Pictures look amazing Sam
What a great meal - is there any (savoury) dish that isn't enhanced by parmesan or basil?
Looks really fresh and summery! Yum Yum Yum!
Simple, fresh and gorgeous! Love the tomatoes, especially. No need to hide them w/a bunch of ingredients when they're that beautiful!
I love this time of year, too - we still get the best summer tomatoes, corn, and fruit, but the fall stuff is starting to appear, and since it's cooler, you can do more cooking (well, I do, anyway).
I'm impressed by the forceful way in which you "bash" the chicken fillets and "roughly tear" the basil. Who knew cooking was so manly!
Seriously though, that looks absolutely delicious and it's a perfect dish for the season!
The color of that tomato! I love this time of year too, but dreading what's coming up ahead. It's been cold and rainy in London for the past two days - I hope that doesn't mean summer is totally over. In California we have Indian Summer - heat waves in the fall, something tells me that will not be happening here in England.
Love crusted chicken, especially with parm!
oh wow, look at the colour of the tomatoes! This dish sounds like a perfect weeknight meal.
that sauce looks just beautiful. I love it! Also, love buying stuff from the market - so much cheaper and usually much nicer than the supermarkets! I can't wait for it to properly kick into Spring here in NZ so that more stuff comes into season, been a bit sparse of late...
Those flavours sound so perfect! How do you do your crust?
Oh, the richness of the colour of those tomatoes. And a parmesan crust on anything is a brilliant idea! this is a fantastic dish!
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