* Adapted from How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
I’m not ashamed to say that the second time I made this I used a rotisserie chicken and saved an hour and a half of cooking time. This is one of my go-to pasta dishes, whether I cook the chicken from the get-go or simply throw in shredded leftovers.
Ingredients
- 1 (3½ pound) roasting chicken
- 2 tablespoons-extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 fresh rosemary sprigs, minced
- ⅓ cup sultanas (golden raisins), soaked in warm water for 30 minutes
- ½ cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
- 1 pound tagliatelle pasta noodles (if you can’t find that, fettuccini will do quite nicely)
- 2–3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Rub the chicken with the oil and sprinkle with the salt and pepper—then place it breast-down in a roasting pan and roast for about 1½ hours, or until well browned, turning it over toward the end to brown the breast. It’s done when the juices run clear—not pink—when you cut into the thigh. When the chicken’s nearly ready, put abundant water on for the pasta, salting it when it boils.
Take the chicken out of the oven and take the meat off the bone, leaving all that glorious burnished skin on, and cut it into small pieces. I do much of this by just pulling without a knife, but if you haven’t got asbestos hands, use a knife and fork or wait till it’s cooler.
For the sauce, pour all the juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan. Add the rosemary, the drained sultanas and the pine nuts. Begin to simmer the sauce when you’re ready to cook the pasta.
Cook and drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce, chicken pieces and parsley in a large warmed bowl. No cheese, please.
