MAISON DE KENNEDY

Creamy Sundried Tomato & Chicken Pasta

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ (5/5) Tested by Cass — 1 hr 15 min · Serves 6

The sister dish to the white wine version, from the same Italian café menu — same butter-chicken-garlic-parsley-cream-parmesan bones, but the wine is swapped out and jarred sundried tomatoes carry the flavour instead. Sweeter, tangier, a deeper red-orange sauce, and the chicken picks up all of it.

Ingredients

Chicken & Brine

• 700 g Chicken Breast — diced into 2 cm pieces (see notes)
• 1 L Cold Water
• 3 tbsp Fine Salt (~45 g)
• 2 tbsp Caster Sugar
• 2 Bay Leaves — optional
• 1 tsp Black Peppercorns — optional

Sauce & Pasta

• 600 g Dry Pasta — fettuccine, tagliatelle or penne
• 60 g Butter
• 1 tbsp Oil from the sundried tomato jar — or olive oil
• 6 cloves Garlic — finely chopped
• 200 g Sundried Tomatoes in Oil — drained and roughly chopped
• Large handful Flat-Leaf Parsley — chopped, ~½ cup, keep some for garnish
• 500 ml Heavy Cream
• 100 g Parmesan — freshly grated, plus more for serving
• Salt & Freshly Cracked Black Pepper
• 1 cup Reserved Pasta Cooking Water — 1½ cups if using fresh pasta
• Optional: pinch Chilli Flakes, splash of Balsamic

Method

1. Make the brine: Dissolve salt and sugar in the water, stirring until fully clear. Warm 100 ml first if it helps, then top up with cold — the brine must be cold before the chicken goes in.
2. Brine 45 minutes: Add bay and peppercorns if using. Submerge the diced chicken fully and refrigerate 45 min to 1 hour. No longer than 90 min or the texture turns spongy.
3. Dry it properly: Drain, rinse briefly under cold water, and pat very dry with paper towels. Dry surface = proper sear, no steam.
4. Water on: Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a rolling boil — it should taste like the sea. Have this ready before you start the sauce.
5. Sear the chicken: Wide deep sauté pan over medium-high. Butter plus 1 tbsp of the sundried tomato oil. Once the foam subsides, add chicken in a single layer — two batches if needed. Don't stir for the first 90 seconds; let it catch colour.
6. Cook through: Toss and cook 6–8 minutes total until golden at the edges and just cooked. Don't overcook — it finishes in the sauce.
7. Pasta in: Drop the pasta now. Set a timer for 1 minute less than the packet says.
8. Garlic and parsley: Turn the pan to medium. Add the garlic and two-thirds of the parsley. Stir 60 seconds until fragrant — don't brown the garlic. Season with salt and cracked pepper.
9. Tomatoes: Add the chopped sundried tomatoes. Stir 1–2 minutes to warm through and release their oil into the butter. The pan should look glossy red-orange.
10. Cream: Pour in the cream, bring to a bubble, then drop to a strong simmer. Cook 3–5 minutes, stirring, until it coats the back of a spoon and turns rosé-orange.
11. Parmesan off heat: Stir in the grated parmesan. Taste and adjust — salt, pepper, a pinch of chilli, or a few drops of balsamic if it feels too sweet. Rich, tangy, glossy.
12. Save the water: Before draining, scoop out 1 cup of the starchy cooking water. Do not skip this — it's what makes the sauce cling.
13. Toss: Drain (don't rinse) and tip straight into the chicken pan. Toss over medium heat with tongs, adding pasta water a splash at a time (~½ cup) until the sauce loosens and coats every strand.
14. Serve: Finish with the remaining parsley. Warm bowls, extra parmesan, cracked pepper, and torn basil if you have it.

Notes

• Serve it with a parmesan focaccia. That's the pairing.
• 700 g is the right ratio. First cook used 900 g and came out too chickeny — the sauce and pasta lost the spotlight. 700 g (~117 g per person) is closer to authentic Italian pasta-as-hero portioning. Go to 900 g only for hungrier appetites or if the pasta is the sole main. Brine quantities stay the same either way.
• Why brine the breast. Breast is leaner than thigh, so it dries out fast when diced and pan-cooked. A 45-minute wet brine pulls salt and water into the meat so it stays plump through the sear. It won't taste salty, it'll taste seasoned. This one step is the difference between dry rubbery chicken and the café version.
• Oil-packed sundried tomatoes only. Not the leathery dry-packed ones — those need soaking first. Save the oil from the jar and use a tablespoon of it at the start instead of olive oil. Quality matters: Italian brands or deli-counter. Supermarket house-brand can be watery and bland.
• The pasta water rule. Cream sauces tighten as they cool. Starchy pasta water emulsifies with the fat, thins without diluting, and helps the sauce grip. Add slowly at the end and keep tossing. This is the single technique that separates café pasta from home pasta.
• Fresh pasta is thirsty. Paired with fresh fettuccine it drank the pasta water like it was going out of style — fresh releases less starch and has a more absorbent surface. Reserve 1½ cups instead of 1 and don't be shy. If it tightens on the plate, a final tablespoon rescues it.
• Fridge: sauce keeps 3 days covered. Reheat gently in a pan with a splash of milk or water, low heat, don't boil.
• From the café owner: "For sundried tomato, add instead of wine. We used to toss chicken in flour but only cos we were cooking large quantities. It's better without."

Freeze & Reheat — Sauce Only, No Pasta

• Freeze without the parmesan. The single biggest trick. Parmesan crystallises and goes gritty in the freezer. Stop just before the parm goes in, cool fully, freeze. Add fresh grated parmesan when you reheat.
• This version freezes better than the wine one — the tomatoes and their oil stabilise the cream emulsion, so it's less prone to splitting on thaw.
• Cool completely first (fridge 1–2 hours). Hot into the freezer means big ice crystals and a wrecked emulsion.
• Portion it — single-dinner sizes (~350–400 ml per 2 servings) in flat zip bags laid flat, or lidded containers.
• Keeps 2–3 months. Still safe at 4, but the flavour dulls. Label with date and version.
• Thaw slowly — overnight in the fridge. In a hurry, sit the sealed bag in cool water for 30–60 min. Never microwave from frozen; you'll split it.
• Reheat gently in a wide pan over low heat, stirring constantly. If it looks split at first, keep going — it usually comes back as it warms.
• Rescue a split sauce: whisk 1 tsp cornflour into 1 tbsp cold water and drizzle in while whisking hard. Or add a splash of fresh cream and whisk vigorously off heat. Both re-emulsify reliably.

Variations

• Baby spinach — 100 g folded in with the pasta at the end. Wilts in seconds. The classic Tuscan chicken silhouette.
• Pine nuts — 3 tbsp toasted, over each bowl. Crunch and nuttiness.
• Fresh basil — torn over just before serving. Enormous lift.
• Bacon or pancetta — 100 g diced, rendered first, removed, then added back with the parsley.
• Vegetarian — skip the chicken, add 250 g cooked cannellini beans, or double the sundried tomatoes and add 100 g mushrooms.

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