Serve this tasty pasta number with my Basil Pesto Caprese Salad or Tuscan Panzanella Salad for a fun Italian inspired meal. Sun-dried tomatoes have had their heyday in the early 90s but have fallen out of favour since then. Not in my kitchen! Drying tomatoes concentrates the taste by removing water, and what a punchy flavour it is! Just a handful of sun-dried tomatoes can add an lively intensity to a whole range of dishes. Adding them to humble pasta and chicken is a great way to add incredible flavour to simple ingredients. Let me show you how to use sun-dried tomatoes to transform humble spaghetti into a restaurant-worthy dish!
How to use sun-dried tomatoes
Adding them to pasta dishes is one of my favourite ways of using sun-dried tomatoes. This 5 Minute Ravioli Sauce uses sun-dried tomato pesto and is consistently in the top 5 popular recipes on Vikalinka. Another favourite is roasted Parmesan broccoli with garlic and sun-dried tomatoes. Everyone will fall in love with this flavourful vegetable dish. Broccoli pasta with sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan is a similar, and equally delicious, dish. The recipe for this sun-dried tomato pasta was related to me in very loose terms by an older Italian lady on a trip to Italy. She gave it to me along with a jar of the best sun-dried tomatoes I’ve ever tasted. I’ve tweaked it a little bit by adding chicken in order to make it into a more practical one pan dinner that my family loves. But at it’s heart is a traditional Sicilian recipe that is too good not to share!
Ingredients
The ingredient list is blissfully short. All you need to make this authentic Sicilian spaghetti recipe is found below.
spaghetti or any other pasta chicken breasts good quality olive oil good quality sun-dried tomatoes garlic chilli flakes parsley
If I am completely honest with you, this recipe for sun-dried tomato spaghetti doesn’t need chicken breast added to it. It’s flavourful and satisfying even when served meatless. It is how it would be enjoyed in Italy as Italians eat in courses. Chicken is never added to the pasta but enjoyed as a separate course followed directly after the pasta course. But if your family loves chicken, do follow this recipe.
Oil packed sun-dried tomatoes vs. dry packed
You can use either kind in this recipe. What you use is a matter of preference and accessibility. Whatever you do, use the best quality you can find as the flavour of this dish heavily relies on this ingredient. If you use sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, reduce or completely omit the olive oil in step 3 of the recipe to avoid your pasta becoming too oily and therefore, heavy. I often use only 1 tsp of the oil the sun-dried tomatoes are packed in as it only intensifies flavour. If you are using dry packed sun-dried tomatoes, proceed with the recipe as written. I personally prefer my sun-dried tomato dry packed. This way I can control the amount of oil. That being said, I recommend looking at your dried packed tomatoes closely. If they are too dry, they might need to be submerged in hot water for 5 minutes before cooking. If they have the texture of prunes, they are good to go as they are. No reconstituting is necessary for this pasta recipe.
Sun-dried tomato sauce
The genius of this dish is how simple the sauce is. Because it takes only a couple of minutes to prepare, it’s a good idea to start the chicken beforehand. Do this by slicking two chicken breasts lengthwise, season with salt and pepper, and pan fry on both sides until they are golden. They can be set aside until the sauce and pasta are ready. With that out of the way, the sauce can be prepared. Briefly cook the chopped sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil with sliced garlic, chilli flakes and fresh flat leaf parsley until fragrant but be careful. Both sun-dried tomatoes and garlic burn fast, so use low heat and pay close attention. Then add cooked spaghetti with some pasta water and toss with salt. Top with sliced chicken breasts. Done!
Storage and leftovers
Any leftovers from this pasta dish can be kept in the fridge for up to three days. Store them in an airtight container. I wouldn’t recommend freezing as it will do the pasta no favours. Refrigerated leftovers can be reheated in a microwave. The time it will take will depend on your microwave, but a normal plateful will usually take 2-2.5 minutes.
