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Toscana · Penne alla Toscana con Pollo

Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta

A creamy garlic sauce lifted by spinach and sun-dried tomatoes — richness and freshness in perfect balance.

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Total

35 min

Prep

12 min

Cook

23 min

Serves

4

EasyCreamyDate nightChickenSun-dried tomatoWeeknight
Creamy Tuscan Chicken Pasta — Penne alla Toscana con Pollo

The Story

Where it comes from

Tuscany's kitchen is famously frugal — bread, beans, olive oil — so this dish is less a village heirloom than a modern trattoria riff built on Tuscan ingredients: sun-dried tomatoes from the Maremma sun, spinach, garlic, and enough cream to bind them. What makes it work is the sun-dried tomato oil: it carries concentrated umami into the sauce before a drop of cream goes in. Spinach added at the end keeps its colour and gives the plate a green, vegetal snap against all that dairy.

Mise en Place

Ingredients

For 4 servings. Quantities are by weight where it matters — Italian cooking is a math of grams and minutes.

For the pasta

  • Penne

    400 g

  • Coarse sea salt

    for water

For the sauce

  • Chicken breast

    sliced into 2 cm strips

    500 g

  • Sun-dried tomatoes in oil

    drained and sliced, oil reserved

    120 g

  • Garlic

    thinly sliced

    4 cloves

  • Heavy cream

    250 ml

  • Chicken stock

    120 ml

  • Dried Italian herbs

    oregano, thyme, rosemary

    1½ tsp

  • Chilli flakes

    a pinch

  • Sea salt and black pepper

    to taste

To finish

  • Baby spinach

    150 g

  • Parmigiano Reggiano

    grated

    80 g

  • Lemon zest

    of ½ lemon

Equipment

Large potWide sauté panTongs

The Method

Chef-led, step by step

  1. 1

    Sear the chicken

    8 min

    Heat 2 tbsp of the reserved sun-dried tomato oil in a wide pan. Season the chicken strips and sear in a single layer, 3 minutes per side, until golden. Remove to a plate.

    Chef's note · Don't crowd the pan — steamed chicken has no colour and no flavour.

  2. 2

    Bloom the aromatics

    2 min

    Lower the heat, add the garlic, herbs and chilli, and cook 60 seconds until fragrant. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and stir for another minute.

  3. 3

    Build the sauce

    6 min

    Pour in the stock and scrape up the browned bits, then add the cream. Simmer gently 5 minutes until it coats the back of a spoon.

  4. 4

    Cook the pasta

    9 min

    Boil the penne to 1 minute under al dente in well-salted water. Reserve 250 ml of pasta water and drain.

  5. 5

    Wilt and combine

    3 min

    Return the chicken and its juices to the pan. Add the spinach in handfuls, then the pasta. Toss with pasta water until glossy and the spinach has just collapsed.

  6. 6

    Finish

    2 min

    Off heat, fold in the Parmigiano and lemon zest. Taste, adjust salt and pepper, and serve in warm bowls.

Chef tips

  • ·Use the oil from the sun-dried tomato jar — it's free flavour you already paid for.
  • ·Lemon zest at the end is what stops the cream tasting heavy.
  • ·Cut the chicken across the grain so each strip stays tender.

Common mistakes

  • ·Boiling the cream hard — it will reduce to a greasy film.
  • ·Adding spinach too early; it turns khaki and weeps water into the sauce.
  • ·Under-seasoning: cream mutes salt, so taste at the very end.

The Cellar

Wine pairings

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Toscana

Tuscany's own white — almond-edged and saline against the cream.

Rosato di Toscana

Toscana

Berry freshness that echoes the sun-dried tomatoes.

Shopping List

What to bring home

  • Penne400 g
  • Coarse sea saltfor water
  • Chicken breast500 g
  • Sun-dried tomatoes in oil120 g
  • Garlic4 cloves
  • Heavy cream250 ml
  • Chicken stock120 ml
  • Dried Italian herbs1½ tsp
  • Chilli flakesa pinch
  • Sea salt and black pepperto taste
  • Baby spinach150 g
  • Parmigiano Reggiano80 g
  • Lemon zestof ½ lemon

Questions

Frequently asked

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