Belli amici! Cooks and chefs! Food lovers! 

Spring is swinging! Flowers are blooming! Birds are singing! Bees are pollinating! And people are planting their summer gardens…now. Now is the time ladies and gentlemen. But until fresh tomatoes come…during these other 8 months, sun dried tomatoes are the best choice, for flavor and nutrition.

Somehow, Joanne Schmidt, this month’s recipient of the Bella Sun Luci Recipe Contest Honorable Mention Award, knew that. This is actually a nourish bowl recipe! You’ll see when you go to cook this that the cutlets are cut up “bite size” and tossed in with the grains. Congratulations Chef Joanne! You’ll receive a big Bella Sun Luci gift box full of our products so you can work up a new recipe and hopefully win next year!

This dish was very close to ‘making the podium’.  It’s delicious and it has some of the elements I look for when deciding on the finalists, nutrition and flavor. But as I was finishing cooking it during the test phase of the process I realized that it could use something to tie it together: spinach! Any vegetable really, but I happened to have had spinach on hand. Italian food is often green-white-red, like the Italian flag. Pizza Margherita and Pasta Pomodoro have basil to make them green-white-red, for example. And basil would have worked here too, but it’s a nourish bowl…really…so I thought veggies would be a nice addition. Now that it’s spring…fava beans, artichokes and asparagus will make nice additions as well.

Also, everybody, when you use olive oil, please use luscious Bella Sun Luci Extra Virgin Arbequina Olive Oil!

And…the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes drizzled on top of the dish is a nice touch. Yes, it’s always a good idea to add a little basil or any fresh herbs, or edible blossoms…nasturtiums or calendulas or chive blossoms for color and a flavor snap at the end. Please do join me, every chance you get, on my quest to make Martha Stewart jealous! It’s my life’s work.

Now, everybody, get cooking, please send in your recipes (the deadline is July 1), buon appetito, happy primavera (springtime) and arrivederci. Until we meet again.

Con amore,

Chef Richie

Italian Chicken Cutlets with Harvest Grains and Sun Dried Tomatoes

• 1½ lbs thinly sliced chicken cutlets
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 8 oz. Harvest Grains Blend
• 1 8 oz. Jar Bella Sun Luci Sun-Dried Julienne Cut Tomatoes in Olive Oil and Herbs
• 1 tbsp fresh basil, chiffonade 
• 1 tbsp fresh oregano, rough chopped 
• 1 cup feta, diced into small cubes 
• 1 cup olives
• 1 cup artichoke hearts
• 1 5 oz bag baby spinach
• 1 tsp Salt
• ½ tsp pepper
• 4 Gloves Minced Garlic
• 1 Tbs Bella Sun Luci Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

Directions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 500F. Season the chicken, drizzle a little olive oil over it and roast it for 12-15 minutes. remove from oven and set aside.
2. In the meantime, gather and prep the rest of the ingredients.
3. Cook the harvest grains, like the package says, with chicken broth instead of water.
4. When the grains are cooked and the chicken is around room temp, dice it into bite size cubes, heat a little olive oil in a large pan over a high flame, sauté the chicken for 30 seconds, add the garlic, stir in, add the grains and continue stirring as you add the rest of the ingredients, spinach, sun dried tomatoes and fresh herbs last.
5. Serve steaming hot.