Quick and Easy Pasta...

As a self taught chef, I often rely of cooking shows, books, web, etc. for my culinary skills and techniques.  My idea of good tv is the Food Network or any other channel with food related content.  If food is the subject, I'm listening, so it should not come as a surprise that one day while walking to work from Penn Station I got a flyer with a recipe and of course it got my attention.  The recipe was from the new cookbook written by one of the "Housewives of New Jersey" from the popular bravo TV show.  Although Teresa Giudice is probably the last person you would expect to get a recipe from, this one caught my attention because I really did not have an authentic Italian style pasta recipe.  This was a basic pasta recipe, which I don’t even remember, but what I got from it was the technique I have been looking for.  Here is my easy and delicious way to prepare a pasta dish, all the ingredients can be interchanged, you can make this vegetarian, or with meat, chicken, seafood, and any vegetable you like.
On the dinner menu: Mezzi rigatoni with grilled chicken and broccoli. 

Ingredients:
1/2 box of Mezzi Rigatoni
1/3 cup of cut up broccoli
4-6 thin sliced chicken breast- I grilled with salt and pepper
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic-chopped
1 TB spoon butter

Cook Pasta according to instruction on the box, I cook for about 10 minutes, when the pasta is half way done, I throw in the broccoli to cook with the pasta.  In a large skillet, sauté the chopped onion in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil until golden, about 3 minutes, add garlic, cook for another minute, then and butter.  Once the butter is dissolved, add about 1/3 cup of the water from the pasta pot, you will see that you now have a nice sauce, season with Salt and pepper. Drain the pasta and add into the skillet along with the grilled chicken, mix, and cook for another 1-2 minutes.  Save a bit of the pasta water, in case you need to add a little more to the sauce.  If your skillet is not big enough, you can add the sauce to the pot that you cooked the pasta in.  Garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese.  Done!! Simple, quick and delicious.  Enjoy :O)