Simplicity is Beautiful

And the dinner I made tonight was just that; both simple and beautiful.
Due to the dreadful recession and the general lack of money in the lives of Ph.D candidates and their spouses, we've been eating lots and lots of flash-frozen chicken and frozen vegetables lately, something that in the past I would have snottily eschewed. However, I'm discovering that these two things can be just as good as the real thing, and a thousand times more convenient because you don't have that pressure of the "Best By" date hanging over your head. With that in mind, tonight I pulled out my several years-old copies of Cooking Light to bring some new ideas to a stale routine of fajitas, stir-fries, and various chilies and stews. I came across a recipe that I had intended to make years ago and instantly went to work.
The recipe is Rotini with Chicken, Asparagus and Tomatoes, and of course the main attraction was the picture. Anything that combines pasta with tomatoes is bound to grab my attention, and it should grab yours as well. I was also interested in what seemed like a too-simple vinaigrette that gets tossed over the whole thing...I had my doubts about that.
I was so wrong. This recipe was not only the soul of simplicity, but it was also a remarkably well thought-out harmony of flavors. The chicken and pasta (I used whole wheat rotini) provide a nice, chewy, hearty backdrop to a variety of fresh yet mild flavors.
In my experience, pasta recipes that showcase asparagus tend to call for way too much of it, which creates an overwhelmingly asparagus-y texture and flavor. Asparagus may be a thick, meaty vegetable, but I don't think it should be given center stage. This recipe, however, called for a perfect cup of 1-inch asparagus pieces. The one warning I would add here is this: if you use fresh asparagus, make sure you get pencil-thin stalks. The thick ones will simply be too big to complement the small pieces of chicken and the corkscrew pasta.
I used grape tomatoes instead of cherry, and while the flavor worked, next time I'll stick with the cherry. The grape were too small and we ended up with several tomato halves in every forkful. That being said, slicing and quickly sauteing the tomatoes is certainly the best way to handle them in this recipe. They need to be just warmed enough to burst when you put your fork to them, but not so cooked that the skin shrivels and they become mushy and lackluster. The tomatoes are one of the joys of this recipe. They provide a nice, crisp juiciness to offset the chewy pasta, meaty chicken, and delicate asparagus.
The balsamic vinaigrette was absolutely perfect. With a light and flavorful pasta like this one, the last thing you want to do is drown it in a sauce, heavy or not. But there was just enough oil to coat the pasta, basil punched up the flavor with a little more freshness, and the balsamic really came through to provide a bit of sweetness and tang with every bite. The only thing I might do next time is whisk the basil into the oil and vinegar mix before adding it to the completed dish, just to ensure that it's all evenly distributed.
Finally, I must take a second and gush about the goat cheese. I think you all know about my devotion to goat cheese, and if you didn't know, now you do. Goat cheese is the star player in this recipe. Even my husband mentioned what a wonderful pairing it is. It is such a flavorful, creamy cheese that it truly is wonderful in almost everything, but the mild flavor it has especially complemented this pasta. The crumbles melted into a lovely cream over the hot pasta, which helped to both bind and enrich every single ingredient. And I was really shocked at how well it worked with the balsamic vinegar. The two of them played off each other wonderfully; the tang of the balsamic was matched by the tang of the cheese, and also toned down by its creaminess.
Altogether, this pasta was phenomenal and took a little less than thirty minutes to make. Can you beat that?

A note about wines: We drank 2007 Nero d'Avola, a Sicilian wine with big jam, light tannins and a little acidity. While this is a really good, drinkable wine, it did nothing for the pasta. A pasta this light and harmonious needs a wine that is equally so; the last thing you want to do is drown a good meal with a mis-matched wine. That being said, I would probably urge you to pick a nice pinot noir. I think that California's Russian River Valley does fantastic pinot noirs, and you can usually get one for a decent price, at least for a pinot noir. But because pinot noirs to tend to be pricey and are truly not worth compromising on, you might want to go for a dry riesling or a chardonnay that's neither too oaky nor too buttery. Pacific Rim does a nice dry reisling that might work with this dish. La Crema's Chardonnay would probably be much better. The carnivorous husband thinks a merlot would be best, but through no bias against merlot (even though I totally have one) I disagree. I think a heavy or thick red would kill the harmony of this dish. Perhaps even a syrah would work all right, as long as it's not too acidic. Hmmm. I think this is a question for my sommalier brother-in-law. So stay tuned, and hopefully I'll have an answer for you before you make this pasta.