Delia's Pollo Cacciatora with Tagliatelle

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 2x Chicken legs
• 350g Vine tomatoes
• Garlic, onion, bay and rosemary
• White wine and white wine vinegar

Given how often I cook while watching Channel 4, I knew this would happen eventually. Someone on Come Dine With Me was cooking the same dish as me at the same time! Chicken cacciatora (or hunter's chicken to you and me) isn't exactly what I'd call dinner party food, but it is very comforting on a foggy autumn day. 

First up, Delia says to quarter a chicken and then cut each leg joint in half. Since I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try butchering a bird, I just bought a couple of legs and bisected them.

The hunks of meat were flash fried in some very hot olive oil until golden and set aside for half an hour.  Next, I made a start on the sauce by chopping a whole onion and frying it for eight minutes - much longer than I'd normally give over to frying an large member of the allium family, but this resulted in lovely brown, partially caramelised onions, which formed the basis of a rich, but sweet sauce. 

Then one clove of garlic was added, before the fresh tomatoes. Delia's instructions were deceptively simple - this was the fiddliest bit of the recipe by far. Stripping the skins off, even with the aid of boiling water, was an annoying process and made me very thankful for the small mercy of tinned tomatoes.

For seasoning, I then added salt and pepper, one teaspoon of tomato paste, a sprinkling of fresh rosemary and a bay leaf. Finally, a glass of white wine and a splash of white wine vinegar was added to the mix. This was simmered for 20 minutes to reduce, before the chicken pieces were added and the whole thing was then stewed for 40 minutes.

Everything I've described so far suggests a fairly straightforward pasta sauce, but it really came together at the end, with the sweetness of the wine and tomatoes balancing out the punchy herbs. When served with tagliatelle and a fresh garden salad, this was more than worth the hassle. And at £1.89 a head, a veritable bargain!

Best for... A rich Italian treat to get you dreaming about next summer's holidays.

Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two

Helen says... Chris's effort looked much better than the one on TV!