Chicken Cacciatore ~ Lidia Bastianich's

My sweet friend Cathy recently made Chicken Cacciatore .

Her beautiful photo made me long for it, and I was reminded that I hadn't made this delicious dish in a long time. A perfect, comforting meal for a chilly evening.

Yesterday, my dear girlfriend, Linda and I were discussing what we were going to have for dinner. I was just about to look through a couple of my Italian cookbooks for a Chicken Cacciatore recipe, I was looking for a version that I had not tried before.

Linda saved me the time of looking! She immediately emailed me two recipes; Sophia Loren's lighter Chicken Cacciatore (which looked great), but I didn't have any fresh basil leaves so I'll make that one another time.

The second was Lydia Bastianich's recipe from "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen", I have the book --- but bless her heart, Linda saved me the task of looking up the recipe.

Wow, aren't Internet friends great?!

You'll want to go check out Linda's blog How to Cook a Wolf . Linda is a great cook, however, my dilemma is that I always want to make EVERYTHING she posts about. It's all fabulous.

I haven't been dissapointed in any of Lidia's recipes yet, and this one is no exception. It's a truly delicious version of Chicken Cacciatore.

I made it with all thighs, and it was excellent. It is going into the "Keeper" file immediately.

I am really looking forward to trying both Sophia Loren's, and Tyler Florences recipes, too.

A huge thank you to both Cathy and Linda for all of their inspiration.

You can find the recipe on the Once Upon a Plate Recipe Blog:

HERE.

Chicken Cacciatore demands a pasta or polenta to serve with it to savor the delicious tomato-mushroom & bell pepper sauce. Stozzapreti (or Priest Choker), a toothsome, rolled, irregular sized pasta was the pasta of choice last night:

This particular brand is from Pianella, Italy. It is excellent, the pasta is extruded through bronze dies, and air dried for 56 hours before packaging. I highly recommend it.