ALLCAPS COOKBOOK PRESENTS: Club Pasta

Ugh, it's the middle of winter and everything is hard. Dinner is just like WHATEVER, MAN.

So this was last night's whatever--everything that is good and right about a club sandwich, taken apart (dEcOnStRuCtEd) and reassembled into a creamy, tangy, fresh-yet-wintrily-ribsticking pasta dish. Roasted chicken, greens, fresh raw tomatoes, crispy proscuitto, and a creamy white wine sauce to slather it all in.

I will say that despite it being an annoying extra step, the chicken crackling and fried proscuitto REALLY make this dish. Every bit with them was miles better than the bites without. I've doubled what I actually used for the official recipe, because it just pulls the whole thing together into something a little more special than standard chicken and pasta. Also yes, you have to brine the tomatoes. They're not in season and tasteless right now, and this process brightens them up so much.

As a final note, I HIGHLY recommend not putting salt on anything in this dish until the sauce is almost ready and you can taste it to adjust. Everything in it is salty on its own. It's easy to add more salt, less so to remove it. So just wait until all the ingredients are in the pan before you add extra salt--it'll cut down on your cooking time, too, since you won't have to add a bunch more liquid to fix the sauce WHICH I DEFINITELY DIDN'T DO I AM AWESOME AT FOOD.

Ingredients

4 chicken thighs, preferably bone-in but definitely skin-on

1 large onion

1 large head of garlic (whole) + 2-3 cloves (diced)

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons butter (total in recipe)

Half a package of the pasta of your choice (I used fettucine, but penne would also be good)

2 shallots, diced very fine

1/2 cup vodka

1.5 cups white wine

1 cup chicken stock

2 inch (ish) knob of brie

1/4 cup parmesan

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon herbes de provence (or italian seasoning)

Zest of one lemon + juice of 1/4 lemon

Splash of white wine vinegar

3 slices prosciutto, torn into small, irregular bits with your fingers

1 handful basil, sliced fine

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, sliced in half & lightly brined (see below)

1 cup arugula, chopped VERY fine, as you would herbs

WALK INTO THE CLUB SAUCE FIRST

Pre-heat oven to 400.

Cut both the onion and garlic head in half. Cut off the ends of the onion, but no need to de-skin either. Swirl olive oil and one tablespoon butter in a cast iron or other oven-safe pan on medium heat. Place chicken thighs skin-side down and fry until golden. Flip thighs and nestle the onion and garlic into the pan with them, then roast for 20-25 minutes.

While everything is roasting, do your slicing and dicing. Place tomato halves in a small bowl with a sprinkling of salt and a dash (no more than a splash) of white vinegar, or balsamic if you're nasty/fabulous. Toss together and set aside.

Remove everything from the pan and set aside to cool enough that you can handle them with your hands. Deglaze the pan with a glug of white wine, scraping up all the crusty brown bits.

When the onions and garlic have cooled, pull the skin off the onion and place in a food processor. Squeeze the roasted garlic goosh out of the head like toothpaste into the same food processor. Add tomato paste and a splash of chicken stock, then puree until a smooth paste forms.

Add shallots, another tablespoon of butter, and diced garlic to the deglazed pan and return to medium, bordering on medium-low heat. Allow to simmer until fragrant and starting to turn golden, about a minute, two at the outside. Pour the puree into the pan, stir everything together, and allow to come up to a bubble. Then, pour in the vodka and simmer until almost all the liquid is gone, about 4-5 minutes.

Add the white wine and stock at this point, stir to incorporate, bring up to a boil and then turn the heat all the way to just above the lowest temp and simmer for 20 minutes or until the liquid is reduced by half. Prepare pasta according to package instructions--EXCEPT DO NOT SALT THE PASTA WATER and DO NOT discard it, you'll need it.

Add cheese, sugar, zest, and the dried herbs to the sauce and increase heat to medium low. Once the cheese has melted, add cream plus at least a half a cup of retained pasta water (I ended up using almost a full cup) and simmer to thicken anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how thick you like your sauce. NOW you can taste and see if you need to add salt--keeping in mind how salty proscuitto is.

While the sauce finishes, remove skin from chicken and slice (or cut with kitchen scissors) into thin strips. Add to a dry pan with the proscuitto and fry on medium until everything is crispy, which does NOT take long, barely over a minute.

When the sauce is however THICC you like a sauce, turn off heat, add shredded basil, the last tablespoon of butter, and a generous splash of white vinegar. Combine and allow flavors to meld as it cools for a few minutes while you prepare the plates.

Pour sauce over each serving of pasta, then top with the superfine arugula (seriously, reduce this to ATOMS--it's absolutely perfect here, but best cut so small and thin no recognizable leaf bits remain) and brined tomato halves, then sprinkle the chicken skin and prosciutto to crown this beast and GET SLURPING.