Enjoy a nice Italian dish with some Italian music!

Recipe: Jenna's Healthy Whole Wheat Spaghetti Dish
Song: Andrea Bocceli's "Mille Lune Mille Onde"

Imagine spending a semester abroad in Florence, Italy where you study with great students from other schools, and wonderful professors who are kind and understanding. That was me during my junior year of college a couple years ago. It was a wonderful experience that I'll always treasure and remember forever. While I wouldn't change anything about my experience abroad, there was one thing that was a problem-my Italian was terrible. I was awful at speaking and writing in Italian, and all I could think about was how my grandma (Antonette) would've jumped right in to help me with the language if I ever needed her to. Unfortunately, my grandma died six years ago and we haven't stopped missing her since. She was such a sweet and funny woman. My Great Grandma Carmella (who was her mother and is credited with giving me my really tan skin that somehow no one else in my family has) immigrated to America from Italy as a teenager, so she taught my grandma how to speak Italian.

I just love eating spaghetti, don't you?

But enough about my family. One day when I was out shopping with my friends by The Florence Cathedral, I came up with an idea. Maybe if I tried listening to some Italian music, it would help build my Italian vocabulary! Immediately, I remembered those Barilla pasta commercials that used to be on. You know, the ones where a guy would provide a woman with pasta and be romantic about it? As soon as I got back to my apartment, I googled "What was the Italian song that played during the Barilla pasta commercials?" I would find out that the song was Andrea Bocceli "Mille Lune Mille Onde." Don't ask me why I chose that song to help me learn Italian. I guess at the time when I thought of it, I must've been hungry.

For some funny reason, I've always enjoyed playing that song constantly since I returned home from my trip abroad. I especially like to listen to it whenever I'm making pasta. I just think that it's a sweet, beautiful, and romantic song with a great tune. Because I found out about this song through a pasta commercial, I decided to pair it with my own pasta recipe! Check out this dish below :)




Jenna's Healthy Whole Wheat Spaghetti Dish


What you'll Need:

1/2 Package of Whole Wheat Thing Spaghetti (I used the one by Barilla)
2 Tbs of grated cheese (I used Pecorino Romano)
1/2 10 oz package frozen spinach
2 Tbs low-fat butter
1/2 16 oz package ground chicken
About 2 Tbs olive oil
A couple dashes of ground, dry basil


Instructions:

1. Heat skillet over medium-high heat for a moment before adding olive oil.
2. Spread oil around the pan before adding the chicken. (I cooked the whole package so that we had the leftover chicken ready for something else).
3. While the chicken is cooking, add the dry basil (your whole kitchen will smell like basil!) Be sure to cook the chicken all the way through.
4. While the chicken is cooking, cook the frozen spinach according to it's instructions.
5. Cook the pasta according to the box's instructions. Once the spaghetti is drained, immediately return it to the pot and toss it with the butter.
6. Once the butter is melted, add the chicken.
7. Finally, add the spinach and the cheese, and combine everything together.
8. If you're a cheese lover like I am, feel free to sprinkle additional grated cheese on top of the pasta!

Serves 2.

*All credit for the song "Mille lune Mille Onde" goes to Andrea Bocceli, and can be heard here.