Winter Pasta Salad with Chicken, Mushrooms and Radicchio

Photo: Hudson Valley Mediterranean Cookbook

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-from Hudson Valley Mediterranean: The Gigi Good Food Cookbook, by Laura Pensiero

Makes 6-8 Servings

Ingredients
8 ounces dry orecchiette or farfalle pasta
3 tablespoons olive oil
12 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded, caps sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 mall head radicchio, shredded
12 ounces boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size pieces
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup freshly grated Grana Padano
Parmesan cheese

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente, following the package directions. Drain, and transfer to a large bowl. (The pasta can be cooked ahead of time: place it in a large bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil to keep it from sticking together.) Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over moderately high heat until it is hot but not smoking. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and cook, tossing or stirring occasionally, until they are tender and golden brown, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the pasta bowl. In the same skillet, sauté the shredded radicchio for a minute. (Don’t let the radicchio cook too long; you want it to retain some crunchiness.) Add it to the pasta. Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté until slightly browned. Add the chicken and sauté until lightly browned and cooked through, 7 to 10 minutes. Add the white wine and let it reduce to a few teaspoons. Add the mustard and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for a minute. Then stir in the Grana Padano. Remove the skillet from the heat and add the chicken mixture to the pasta. Toss to blend. Serve warm, at room temperature, or cold.

Variations

Add some cooked white beans and/or a cup of peas.

Substitute shrimp for the chicken.

Nutrition
Colorful radicchio is chock-full of antioxidants.

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