Chicken Saltimbocca & Pasta

📝 Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts (560 g)
• 8 thin slices of prosciutto (100 g)
• 8 fresh sage leaves
• 30 g plain flour
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 15 g unsalted butter
• ½ chicken stock cube (for 200 ml stock)
• 1 lemon
• 320 g dried pasta (tagliatelle)
• 250 g baby spinach (2 bags)
• 1 garlic clove
• Salt, black pepper

🍴 Utensils

• Large frying pan
• Large saucepan
• Colander
• 2 dinner plates
• Cocktail sticks
• Chopping board and a sharp knife

📖 Steps

1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil for the pasta. Dissolve the half stock cube in 200 ml hot water. Squeeze the lemon. Peel the garlic clove and slice it thinly.
2. Slice each chicken breast in half horizontally to get 8 thin escalopes about 1 cm thick. Season with pepper and only a very little salt: the prosciutto will already add plenty of salt.
3. Lay a slice of prosciutto on each escalope, then a sage leaf in the centre, and secure with a cocktail stick pushed through flat. Dip the escalopes in the flour spread on a plate, tapping off the excess so only a thin dusting remains.
4. Heat the olive oil and half the butter in the large frying pan over a medium-high heat until the butter foams. Add the escalopes ham-side down, without crowding them: cook them in two batches if the pan is too small.
5. Cook for 2 minutes until the ham is golden and crisp, then turn and cook for 3 to 4 minutes: the chicken should be white all the way through, with no trace of pink. Set the escalopes aside on the second plate, without washing the pan.
6. Drop the tagliatelle into the boiling water and cook for the time given on the packet. Meanwhile, fry the garlic for 30 seconds over a medium heat in the frying pan, then pour in the stock and lemon juice, scraping the bottom to lift the browned bits.
7. Let the sauce reduce for 3 minutes over a high heat, until it has reduced by half. Off the heat, stir in the rest of the butter: the sauce becomes glossy and slightly thickened. Season with pepper and taste.
8. Drain the pasta and immediately return it to the hot pan, off the heat, with the baby spinach. Stir for 1 to 2 minutes: the heat of the pasta is enough to wilt the spinach. Season lightly with salt and add pepper.
9. Return the escalopes to the pan over a low heat for 1 minute to warm them through, basting them with the sauce. Remove the cocktail sticks, then serve two saltimbocca per person on the spinach tagliatelle, topped with the lemon sauce.