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Beetroot salsa with fregola sarda, spinach, chicken and feta
Serves 2-4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 2 large organic chicken breasts with skin
- 1tbsp olive oil
For the salsa
- 1 cooked golden beetroot, sliced then diced into small cubes
- 1 cooked red beetroot, sliced then diced into small cubes
- 2½tbsp toasted pinenuts
- 1½tbsp baby capers (non-pareilles)
- 1 fat red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 fat clove garlic, chopped then crushed to a paste with a little salt
- 3 sage leaves, finely chopped
- 3tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- 75ml extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
For the fregola sarda
- 100g fregola sarda
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
- 100g baby spinach leaves
Method
Fregola sarda hails from Sardinia and consists of semolina pasta balls that are toasted with a nutty flavour. If unavailable, you can use unroasted giant couscous or maftoul instead.
To make the salsa, put all the ingredients into a bowl, pouring in the extra virgin olive oil last. To prepare the chicken, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Put one breast at a time between 2 sheets of baking parchment and flatten them with a rolling pin a little so they are about 1.5cm thick. Cut a piece of the paper into a rough circle to base-line a frying pan large enough to take the 2 breasts. Rub with the oil and season. With skin side down on the paper, fry the chicken until golden for about 3 minutes on a medium high heat. Turn them over and cook for another minute. Transfer to the oven skin side up and cook for another 8 minutes. Remove and leave to rest for about 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the fregola sarda in a frying pan with 1tbsp of the olive oil and heat on medium, stirring for a few minutes to coat. Add 300ml cold water with a pinch of salt and cook for 5 minutes until the water has almost all absorbed.
Add a further 100ml water, the lemon juice and the zest, cover and cook on low for 10 minutes or until just cooked. Add another 1tbsp of oil and the spinach, cover and wilt the spinach for a few minutes. Keep warm.
Slice the chicken roughly and serve with the fregola sarda and beetroot salsa along with wedges of the lemon on the side to squeeze over the salsa.
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