A healthy Italian chicken dish perfect for spring based on a Renaissance recipe. Brimming with the flavours of fresh vegetables accompanied by a creamy mushroom sauce and a variation of what we now know as lasagne as an accompaniment, this meal has an unusual—but not difficult—cooking method that"layers" the stock.
Spring looks like it might finally be here. Yes, it's probably delusional and we've yet to experience the traditional wet Easter, but yesterday's sunshine filled me with an enthusiasm to do something with some the veggies I bought at the market over the weekend.
The problem with the Italian Renaissance texts on cooking I request at the British Library is that, by the time I plod my way through the the old language, I'm chewing on my pencil: no pens or crisps allowed in the reading rooms...
This is a recipe based on a late Renaissance book on cooking from Verona. No one knows exactly who wrote it because only a segment survives, but it's thought to be by a local chef who cooked for the aristocracy in Milan and later in Naples. For all of its noble pedigree, this dish is delightfully simple. No, I haven't stuck faithfully to it. How could I? For example, it calls for a soft cheese that the extensive annotations believe to be something like mascarpone, but mascarpone is only first documented in the 16th century... Nor, indeed can we be sure that what we now call kale was a variety used at the time, yada, yada...
Geek concerns aside, just go for it. It's fresh, succulent and involves a number of great ways to sneak chlorophyl into any friends or family who don't usually like veggies. One of the things that attracted me to this recipe is its notable cooking method; the way it uses an oven and a single pot to create the entire dish. Having experimented with it over the years, it's become a firm seasonal favourite and it's reasonably healthy—and can be easily adapted to be even more so.
If your reference for "boiled chicken" are those gross, limp pieces of watery poultry you get in reputedly healthy, overpriced salads from those places serving the office lunch crowd, think again. Though technically boiled, the outcome with the chicken here (at least if you stick to this recipe) is much like a damned fine roast chicken in the hands of those people, such as my friend Fiona, who know how to roast a bird without drying it out.
I strongly advise using extra-low salt stock cubes/jellies for this one, not so much a health concern as a taste one. In cooking the stock in this "layered" way, a lot of the natural salts in each cooked ingredient enters the liquid and the dish can become somewhat salty if using normal stock cubes/jellies.
Similarly, I thought I was being clever once by using fresh oregano. There's a reason this dude way back in mists of time stated "dried oregano". Trust me.
These quantities are for two diners. Scale up or down as needed.
Shopping list
for the chicken
1 or 2 fillets of raw white chicken meat per diner, such as breast or thigh
1 stem of celery per diner; cut into large pieces
2 carrots per diner, roughly sliced, vertically; "rustic julienne"
2 or 3 sprigs of fresh green asparagus per diner
4 or 5 large spring ones, cut into large pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
3 cloves of garlic, crushed or grated
2 tbspns dried oregano
the juice of 1 lemon
1 vegetable stock cube or jelly
1 chicken stock cube or jelly
a little olive oil
Approx. 60g fresh kale, per diner, chopped
1 tbspn of honey
1 large shallot per diner, peeled
for the lasagne
3 lasagne pasta sheets
Kale (you'll use the kale above)
Approx. 2 tbspns sesame seeds
A very generous clutch of fresh flat-leaf parsley
A very generous clutch of fresh basil
A very generous clutch of fresh coriander
a little olive oil
Approx. 150g marscapone
the juice of 1 lemon
A little strongly flavoured hard cheese (such parmesan or aged pecorino)
for the mushroom sauce
a little olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 large shallots, very finely chopped
Approx. 150g large closed-cup mushrooms, thickly sliced
Approx. 2 tbspns dried porcini mushrooms, roughly broken
A glass of white wine
1 tbspn of tomato purée
A clutch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Approx. 150g marscapone
A generous dab of fresh single cream (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
for the additional accompaniment
Approx. ⅕ of a small romanesco per diner, steamed (or done more traditionally; see "variations" below)
and/or
a simple salad or choice
Cooking Method
the first stage
In a large pot with a lid, heat a little olive oil on a high heat and, once hot, add the garlic; stirring. While it's cooking, boil the kettle. As soon as the garlic shows signs of turning golden, add your vegetable stock cube (or jelly) to the hot pot, breaking it into pieces. Immediately add the approximate amount of hot water you think necessary to cook the kale. It will only need enough liquid to cover it comfortably. Add the washed, roughly chopped kale and stir in. Cover and bring to the boil.
Boil vigorously for about 5 mins. Stir, re-cover and reduce to a steady simmer allowing it to cook for about 20 mins (don't worry, kale is almost impossible to overcook, especially in this recipe). When cooked, remove from the pot using a sieve spoon—do not discard the liquid in the pot—and allow the kale to drain in a colander.
Bring the stock and "kale water" liquid mix back to the boil, adding a little more water if necessary. Once boiling vigorously, added the lasagne, cover and boil. This should take about 12 mins if dried, notably less if fresh. When the pasta is cooked al dente, remove using tongs and drain by draping over the edges of the same colander draining the kale. Turn off the heat, but retain all of the liquid in the pot.
the lasagne
While the kale and lasagne sheets are cooling and draining, create your "pesto", which you use instead of béchamel. Roughly chop the parsley, coriander and basil and place into a suitably deep receptacle (or the food processor). Add the lemon juice and marscarpone. Using a handheld blender or food processor, blend into a smooth pesto, adding a little olive oil at a time, as needed.
Lay out some baking foil on a flat baking tray and very lightly coat with a little olive oil. Because this lasagne is so thin, it doesn't need a deep tray. Fold in the edges of the foil to form little "sides", more than enough to catch the minimal liquid escaping during cooking. This method makes it much easier to serve when ready than using a baking dish.
Gently lay out the base sheet of lasagne. Add a thin layer of the pesto using a spatula or butter knife. Add a sprinkling of the drained kale and sprinkle with sesame seeds
Repeat this process building up three layers (remember, this is a side dish). Once you've added the pesto, kale and sesame seeds to the top layer, add a little grated strong cheese (e.g. pecorino or parmesan ) But, don't overdo it
Bake in a pre-heated oven on a medium heat for about 20 min or until the top layer is browned. You can do this as much as a few days before and re-heat before plating. Alternatively, time it to be ready when the chicken is cooked.
the chicken
Bring the stock in which you cooked the kale and lasagne back to a gentle boil. Add the carrots, asparagus, celery, shallots and spring onions. Boil for about 6 or 7 mins.
While the broth is boiling, remove the skin from the chicken and debone, if relevant. Flatten out the chicken (if using thigh fillets) or slice and peel back (if using breast). Season with black pepper, dried oregano and smidgen of salt on both sides. Gently roll the chicken into loose, chunky "rolls" and secure using thin skewer sticks. This works better if you push them through the chicken at an angle. Tip: leave enough of the stick to help you lift the chicken during cooking
Add the lemon juice and honey (and chicken skin, if your chicken had skin) to the boiling pot and stir in. Once dissolved, add the chicken stock cube to the pot, breaking it up as you add it. Stir until it's dissolved. Gently lower the chicken into the liquid using the skewers. Cover the pot and cook the chicken on one side for about 7 mins.
Turn the chicken over, using the skewer sticks as "handles". Re-cover and reduce to a very low heat—barely simmering—and cook for a further 7 to 8 mins. You don't want to overcook it, but be sure it is cooked through right to the centre of the "roll".
When cooked, remove from the liquid, remove the skewer sticks and allow to rest, covered, for a few minutes. Using a sieve spoon, drain and serve the larger vegetable pieces with the chicken, lasagne and side dishes. (If used, remove the chicken skin and chuck into the composter waste).
PS, don't waste the stock: re-use it to make a delicious soup or another dish.
the mushroom sauce
While the chicken is cooking, add a little olive oil to a frying pan or small saucepan and heat on a high heat. When the oil is hot, at the garlic, stirring almost constantly. As soon as it begins to turn golden, add the finely chopped shallots, still stirring.
When the shallots turn translucent, add the closed-cup mushrooms and sauté on a high heat, dressing with a little salt and pepper. Add the tomato purée and stir in so that it is evenly distributed, coating the mushrooms and cooking with them.
When the mushrooms are nearly cooked, add the broken porcini mushrooms, stirring almost constantly as you also add the white wine. Allow the wine to boil off, stirring
Add the parsley when the wine almost cooks off. Give it a minute or so to be seared, but not burn. Add the mascarpone, a bit at a time, and stir into a smooth sauce.
Once enough of the mascarpone cooked in, add the single cream (if using) and cook it in too, until you have a sauce of your preferred consistency. Remove from the heat just before plating. Don't leave it to stand too long because it will congeal as it cools. NB: this is a very rich and "heavy" sauce, so a little goes a long way.
Plate all elements, serve with the salad—if you're having one—and enjoy.
Variations
Fats and carbs
Let's work backwards this time. Both the creamy mushroom sauce and the kale and sesame lasagne are delicious. But, one thing I learned quickly with adapting this recipe from the original is that the chicken cooked with the vegetables in this way is utterly delicious. And, it has very little fat in the final dish. So, if.you're on a low-fat or low-carb regime, you could simply bypass the sauce and lasagne and serve the chicken with a salad and/or side vegetable such as the steamed romanesco, rapini or agretti without depriving yourself.
As you get to know this dish, you understand that it's the re-use of the stock at each stage that creates the very special flavours. The kale, cooked first, is a key part of this with that unique, almost metallic taste it adds—probably the manganese in it but what some older people (like me) might refer to as "iron". So, I would at least advise sticking to that: cooking and removing the kale and either serving it as a separate side dish or storing and using in another recipe.
Another word of warning: if you're going down the low-fat route, both the mushroom sauce and the pesto for the lasagne demand a sinfully creamy and fat-laden soft cheese (and cream). Don't be fooled by low-fat cheeses that appear similar to mascarpone unless you want a waterlogged dough for lasagne and a clotted horror instead of a creamy sauce. Better to simply serve with mushrooms sautéed in a smidgen of olive oil and lemon juice.
Other flesh and the old days
The original Renaissance text describes this as a recipe good for "fowl" (a term used to refer to everything from geese to larks back then) and rabbit—probably no surprise because as we all know, it "tastes like chicken". I've made it with rabbit, and it's great. So, if you like somewhere where you can get your hands on rabbit easily, do try that, though it's a bit more fussy when getting the bones out before "rolling" it.
Similarly, while I prefer to steam the romanesco in the microwave, in the original (seemingly romanesco was knocking about back then) this dish is all about using one large pot. In the original, you add the romanesco at the same time as the chicken so that it is still al dente at serving compared with the other veggies that become very soft and tender in the longer process of giving up their flavours to the stock. But, there's nothing to stop you going purist.
Pescies, veggies and vegans
I have tried pescatarian versions of which thick fillets of salmon, rolled as with the chicken here, worked best. Obviously, the cooking time is massively shorter; barely 5 mins in total. And, it doesn't work with the mushroom sauce, so you'll need to go more in a white wine and lemon direction. Tuna was an utter disaster; very metallic, like licking a car battery.
I tried various vegetarian options—this is essentially a vegan dish until you add the chicken stock—and, really, not much worked other than turning it into a different, albeit delicious, dish by adding orzo pasta and pearl barely, essentially turning it into a kind of potage.
Pairings
I've usually ended up having this with a dry, workday white, though I'm sure the committed mind could find very good specific wine pairings. Quotidien whites were, of course, great. But, today, I'm feeling contrary and have decided to take a leaf from the obscure writer's page and to have it with some beer. No idea the beers available in Italy way back then. I'm having it with a simple IPA and, yes, it's working...
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