Chicken, Potato and Gbejna Pasta Bake

The thing about living in London is that everything is done quickly. Restaurants' turn over of customers is quick, people walk in a hurry, date in a hurry and work in a hurry. I find that even though I do not have a 60 odd hour working week, still I do not find the time to cook myself a proper lunch and eat it in peace. Some people think I work three hours a day - WRONG!

I shall come to the point... The fact that everything is in a hurry, the need for dishes which take little time to cook, allow you to do the dishes while it cooks - hence having a tidy kitchen when it is dinner time (only a plate, fork, knife and dish to clean) - and are equally delicious becomes very important. Especially when compared to dishes which require the most rare herb in the country and very careful eye for about 2 hours in the kitchen! Although I love these big shot chefs, Nigella Lawson being my biggest obession, sometimes their recipies lack the chop chop its time to go feel to them!

So I have come up with something extremely quick, rather cheap, and which you can freeze for a rainy day. Those of you reading from Malta, this would be very easy to do. To all the London readers (if any!) there is a good substitute to the typical Maltese ingedient - Gbejniet.

Recipie is - CHICKEN, POTATO AND GBEJNA PASTA BAKE.

The lovely thing about this pasta bake is that is quick to make and the Gbejna gives the dish that tangy flavour since they would have been made with vinegar.

INGREDIENTS

500g penne rigate, or penne lisce

250g Gbejna (can be substituted with Feta cheese)

300g chicken

4/5 medium sized potatos, chopped in small cubes and blanched

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp coriander

1.5 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp chopped garlic

Worchestershire sauce

Light sauce suace

5 tbls low fat cream (or yoghurt)

1 egg

60g parmesan cheese

Salt and pepper for seasoning

METHOD

Boil water in a large pot (to be used for the pasta) and another small pot (to be used for blanching the potatoes). As soon as the water comes to a boil in the small pot, throw in the potatoes and leave to blanche for around 10 minutes, or until slightly soft.

Lightly fry the chicken pieces with a little bit of olive oil (or for the healthy option frying spray) and add the garlic. As soon as the chicken starts to turn white, add the cumin, coriander, chilli flakes, worchestershire sauce, soy sauce. Add a little bit of yoghurt if you like for extra creaminess. When the mixture starts to look like a small sauce, throw in the chopped up Gbejna or feta cheese and mix through. Leave to simmer for no more than 5-7 minutes. Do not let the gbejna melt, although it shouldn't because it is not that kind of cheese. Turn off the heat and cover.

When the pasta boils, drain the water and put back into the large pot. Add the potatoes, the chicken mixture, the parmesan cheese, cream or yoghurt, the egg and season to taste. Transfer to a baking dish and sprinkle the top with pepper, and if you like some more parmesan cheese.

Bake in a 200 degrees fan oven for around 30 minutes and I find it particularly good if you let it cool for around 15-20 minutes before serving.

It should take no longer than an hour to bake and prepare. Quick and easy with a clean kitchen. Hurrah!

Enjoy!