hey mr. B's it's Wednesday so I thought
we would make a simple weeknight meal
I'm Zhong and we're back for day 25 over
30 days of healthy eating and living we
only have five days left but today I'm
gonna share with you a really simple
pasta recipe that's inspired by one of
my college restaurant jobs it's a
chicken melanzana Pomodoro pasta which
Pomodoro is a tomato sauce and melons on
a is eggplant so I hope you guys like
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if you guys are excited for more healthy
weeknight meals and thumbs up if you
love pasta let's go ahead and get
started by sauteing our garlic so the
cool thing about this recipe is
everything is gonna be made in one pot I
guess you can technically call it a one
pot pasta in my pot I'm gonna drizzle a
little bit of olive oil I'll let it get
hot then I have three cloves of garlic
that's finely minced and I'll add it in
I'll saute it for about a minute and
then I have half of an eggplant that
I've already cubed throw that in and now
I'll just saute it for about three
minutes with the garlic until the
eggplants are slightly cooked down I
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love the smell of garlic and eggplant is
just so savory and brings me back to the
days of working out pasta pea
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okay if your eggplants are looking a
little dry go ahead and just drizzle a
little bit more olive oil a plant's
really act kind of like a sponge and it
soaks up everything that you have in
there so sometimes you might need a
little help like I just did so I'm
cooking this on medium heat just to make
sure that our garlic doesn't burn once
it starts to look a little cooked like 1
minute and go ahead and season it with
maybe half a teaspoon of kosher salt to
extract the water from the eggplant
I'll saute it for another minute and now
I'll just remove the eggplant from the
pot and set it aside that was my quick
version of roasting an eggplant now I'm
gonna go ahead and cook the chicken I
have a whole chicken breast that I've
cut up into pieces similar size to the
eggplant I'll drizzle a little bit of
olive oil add my chicken season it with
salt and pepper
and I'll cook it for about three minutes
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all right our chicken looks good and it
had a head start with the cooking
process so now I'm gonna add the rest of
our ingredients here I have 2 cups of
whole wheat penne pasta it's not cooked
we're gonna be cooking it all together
with the chicken I'll drop it in then I
have 2 cups of my favorite marinara
sauce and 2 tablespoons of freshly
chopped basil if you guys like your
pasta with just a hint of spiciness go
ahead and add maybe a sprinkle or a half
a teaspoon of dried red chili peppers I
like mine with the kick especially when
I'm eating eggplant so I'm gonna add
just a dash or two all right I'll give
this this stir mix mix mix and now
because I still had some sauce left over
in my picture I just added a cup of
water I like my pasta really saucy so
you guys can feel free to add 1/2 a cup
if you like it just right or if you like
it saucy you can just add as much as I
will plus it cleans out all the sauce
from the pitcher so there's no waste
give it a final mix
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I'll cover it up with the lid and we'll
cook it on medium high heat for about 15
minutes until the pasta is nice and al
dente and the chickens cooked through
now you guys are probably wondering what
about the eggplant well I don't want to
over cook the eggplant because it tends
to get really mushy so since we already
precooked the eggplant
I'm just gonna toss it in halfway to
finish it off and then we'll add in the
rest of the ingredients we're at our
halfway mark and you can hear it
bubbling in there but now I'm gonna add
our eggplant in now I'll just give it a
few mixes cover it back up and let it
finish cooking all right our 15 minutes
are up let me test the pasta
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feels good
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perfectly al dente
arrastia grief grandma is here for the
next week so I can finish off the series
oh so nice to have help okay so now I'm
going to add some fresh ingredients to
the pasta
I have handful of spinach just dump it
right in 1 tablespoon of Parmesan cheese
2 more tablespoons of basil because I
love it 1 tablespoon of fresh parsley
chopped and this one is totally optional
if you guys love ricotta or just like a
creamier tomato sauce go ahead and add
maybe just 1/4 cup of part-skim ricotta
cheese it'll add so much creaminess and
that cheesy flavor I personally love it
but if you guys are counting calories or
just being healthier totally leave it up
now we'll just give everything a final
mix gently does it
the ricotta will just kind of blend in
with the sauce beautifully it doesn't
have to be mixed through completely
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and that's it for our one pot chicken
and melons on a pasta it smells so good
I wish you guys could smell it today I'm
just gonna eat directly from the pot
because why not let's make sure we get a
little bit of everything so chicken some
melons on a pasta like I said the pasta
is perfectly al dente the chicken is
nice and tender and then the eggplant it
was like since it acts like a sponge it
soaked up all the flavor the skin was
nice and shiny and it was pretty much
like a flavor bomb I love this pasta so
much
I remember at Pasta Pomodoro they had
this dish called melons on a as well
pretty much a plant but they added
smoked gouda or smoked mozzarella in
there that just kind of stretched out
with every bite and it had that
beautiful smokiness I've never been able
to find smoked mozzarella at any grocery
stores actually so I wasn't able to
recreate it hence why I use the ricotta
but oh I hope you guys give this recipe
a try
it is so delicious and the best part of
it too is that everything is made in one
pot so you have easy cleanup I hope you
guys had a wonderful Wednesday and I
hope this inspires you to make many easy
weeknight meals this one actually serves
four to five depending on how much pasta
you eat but it's a really great one for
meal prepping - thank you so much for
watching
tomorrow I will be making some matcha
drinks so be sure to tune in for that
I'll see you guys then bye
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