New Recipe 23 - Spicy Chicken Penne

A couple weeks ago, I came across Pearls, Handcuffs, and Happy Hour.  The first thing that drew me in was the ridiculous title of the blog.  I skimmed through her recipes and found several that I knew I had to try.  


This blogger shares a love of pasta with the hubs.  If it is pasta-related, he will surely love it!  Tonight, we tried the Spicy Chicken Rigatoni.  She labels it a Buca knockoff.  I have never been to Buca di Beppo (the closest one to us is near Charlotte), but I have heard my best friend mention going several times in Florida.

So, how'd it turn out?  Awesome!


We did make a few changes:

• We used whole wheat penne, instead of rigatoni.  I didn't find whole wheat rigatoni at Trader Joe's or Harris Teeter this morning.
• The recipe calls for 1/4 cup of green peas.  The blogger recommends using more if you like peas, so we used about 1 cup.  I would have been happy to have even more peas in it!
• I left out the butter.  I didn't realize that I even left it out until I re-read the recipe a few minutes ago.
• We reduced the amount of crushed red pepper flakes.  We used ~3/4 teaspoon, instead of 1/2 tablespoon (~1 1/2 teaspoons).  I think that the next time we make this, we'll have to up the crushed red pepper just a little.  It didn't have quite the "punch" I was looking for.

Anyway, the hubs said this dish needs to stay in our dinner rotation and I agree.  Hope you like it as much as we did!