Urban Prairie Homestead: Whole Wheat Pasta with Goat Cheese and Grilled chicken and veggies

This dish is summer food. It serves well hot or cold and can be made with for one or for a crowd, making it a great potluck or picnic dish. It is also perfect for sitting on the patio kicking back with a beverage of your choice. This one is going to become a staple at our house this summer. I am not including an ingredients list because I think that the exact selection of ingredients and amounts can vary to your choice, access, and based on what purpose this dish will serve. I have made a version of this for just me and The Cowboy and I made the dish described here now for a house church gathering with 15 to 20 lovely people. It is really versatile and easy and full of delicious things. Be free to enjoy it whichever way fits your life best.

First marinate your chicken in dry spice rub and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Once you get them nice and rubbed up, set them in the fridge while you prep everything else. This step can be done at least 20 minutes ahead, but could be done several hours ahead for maximum marinating goodness.

Use vegetables of your choice. We used asparagus, red pepper, mushrooms and onion. Wash and cut veggies, keeping as whole as possible for grilling. Example, I cut the peppers in half and left the mushrooms and asparagus whole. I used the last third of an onion I had in the fridge and just grilled the whole thing intact. Keeping them whole makes it easier to grill. Marinate in spices, a touch of olive oil, a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, and a tiny splash of Worcestershire sauce. I don’t think it matters as much what kind of spice you use, so much as that you use something you like and let the veggies marinate in them a bit. Additionally, customize your veggies to your own taste and what is available and affordable. The grocery store had really cheap red pepper, so I included them when originally I hadn’t planned them in this dish. They were such a good addition, but next time, if they weren’t available, I’d use something different, squash or eggplant or maybe even okra. This summer as I start gathering a harvest from my garden we will use whatever we picked that day. I am pretty pumped about that.

The next step is to peel a whole head of garlic. Yes. Trust me on this. Make a little aluminum foil boat and put your garlic in there with olive oil, salt, and pepper, a touch of truffle oil and rosemary leaves. You are going to roast this garlic on the grill while the chicken and veggies cook. With the other mushrooms in this dish, the truffle oil makes a nice accent, but is very optional. If you have some available, I suggest trying it, if not, I would omit.

Heat up grill to medium high.

Boil salted water for pasta.

Put garlic boat on second shelf and grill chicken on medium-high until fully cooked. That means an internal temperature of 165 degrees food safety lovers. You are going to leave the garlic on the cooler shelf of the grill during the duration of cooking the chicken and veggies.

Set your garlic boat on the ledge of your grill, or in a cooler spot so that it can slowly roast and not burn.

Grilled marinated mushrooms, I am salivating right now.

Your vegetables really do not require cooking, so what you are looking for is just a little charing while still being quite firm. I found in this recipe that my asparagus was finished first, then the mushrooms, and finally the red pepper (for which I prefer a little more charring). I like my veggies to still be pretty crisp but enjoy the smokey grilled flavor.

When you water is boiling add your whole wheat pasta and cook to al dente. Drain out the cooking water, saving one cup to make sauce. Put the pasta into a large bowl. Incorporate the soft goat cheese and the pasta water back into the pasta. It will melt into a creamy light sauce. Add the zest of a lemon and about half of the juice from that lemon. Add fresh tarragon and bit of ground pepper.