Tomato Sauce with Chicken and Zucchini

Every now and then--more often than we'd like--my husband and I find ourselves faced with slim pickins for a quick dinner. Our pantry reveals a box of pasta. I dig around in search of bottled spaghetti sauce, but I just never remember to buy the stuff. Instead, I find canned tomato sauce and dried herbs. Add garlic, fresh veggies and leftover chicken to this and voila! you've got yourself a nice dinner in under thirty minutes. Here's how things went down tonight:

Serves 6-8 (Hooray for leftovers!)

Ingredients:

1 box shells, penne or other pasta
salt

2 14 oz cans tomato sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small-medium zucchini, diced or cut in large chunks
1 breast of chicken, cooked and cut on the bias, then in half (optional)

Directions:

Bring water to a boil with added salt. Cook pasta according to package instructions.

While pasta cooks, saute zucchini in olive oil with oregano for about 2 minutes over a medium heat. Add garlic. Cook for one minute more.

Pour tomato sauce in a pan over medium-low heat. Add zucchini, oregano, garlic and chicken. Allow to simmer uncovered up to ten minutes (until pasta is done).

If you like a thicker sauce, use only one can and/or begin simmering just tomato sauce when you put the water on to boil. Add other ingredients when you begin cooking pasta.

If you want to make chicken specifically for the sauce, I recommend the following:

Season chicken breast on both sides with oregano, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake fifteen minutes on each side at 375 degrees. Cut on a bias wdth-wide, then in half and cook in sauce as directed above.

Serve over pasta and enjoy. [Photo credit]