Chicken tetrazzini (Pasta with chicken and mushrooms in cream sauce)

Although the dish is named after a famous Italian, opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini, chicken tetrazzini is of American origin. Flaked cooked chicken meat is traditionally used but I discovered that by starting with raw chicken meat, the sauce tastes richer and the color is less pale.

Dry sherry is also the traditional ingredient but I opted for semi-sweet white wine.

If you have fresh button mushrooms, use them by all means. I would have but I had none so I had to content myself with canned mushrooms.

Serves four.

Ingredients:

enough pasta for four persons, cooked al dente
4 large chicken thigh fillets, cut into thin strips
1 onion, chopped
3 tbsps. of butter
3/4 c. of sliced mushrooms
1/2 c. of semi-sweet white wine
1/4 c. of cream
1/4 c. of milk (the pour-and-drink kind)
salt
pepper
1 c. of shredded Parmesan cheese
chopped parsley
a few pinches of paprika

Preheat the oven to 425^oF.

Melt the butter in a shallow pan.

Add the chicken and cook, stirring often, until no longer pink.

Add the onion and stir.

Pour in the white wine.

Add the mushrooms. Cook over medium-high heat, uncovered, until the liquid has been reduced to almost nothing.

Add the cream and milk. Stir. Season with salt and pepper. Cook just until heated through.

Divide the pasta among four oven-proof plates.

Spoon the chicken, mushrooms and sauce over the pasta.

Top with grated cheese.

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and a pinch of paprika. Bake in a preheated 425^oF oven for about five minutes or just until the cheese melts and turns bubbly.

Serve at once (the cheese will harden as the dish gets cold) with toast bread.