Pasta with chicken and red sage sauce

I'm going to break my own rule and do a post with no pictures - simply because I had this neat idea, it was tasty, and I forgot to take a photo.  Also, I haven't  posted in a while, and I've got to make myself keep up these days.

So last night a friend was coming over and requested that I cook some type of chicken.  (She's a big meat-eater but isn't supposed to have much red meat anymore because her cholesterol went way up.)  I hardly cook meat at home, but I did go out to Whole Foods to get some tasty chicken.  I also grabbed some rigatoni so I could do a pasta dish of some kind.

First thing I did when I got home was start the pasta boiling.  Then I added some butter to a pan and cooked the chicken, whole boneless skinless breasts.  When the chicken was cooked, I removed it from the pan and set aside, then added my 10-hour pasta sauce to the pan.  (I made this sauce this summer by boiling down a half-bushel of Roma tomatoes.)  Once the sauce was hot, I cut up some dried sage from my CSA and added, along with the chicken and some hot pasta water.  By that time, the pasta was just done and I mixed it all together.

I may have used a little more sage than I was ready for, because it was REALLY sage-y, almost to the point of being minty, but it was delicious.  I was really happy with how it turned out.  My friend liked it, too!

I served the whole thing with fried Brussels sprouts and fresh carrots.  It was a very nice multi-colored plate - they say eat your "rainbow" of veggies, right?

Also, I feel I should note that I ordered and will soon receive a quarter of cow, pre-butchered.  I don't even know how many pounds of meat this will be!  I bought it from a farmer that I have met many times at the Palatine farmers' market, as well as winter markets in the general northwest suburb area.  He is really great, his meat and eggs are fantastic, and I believe the animals had a great life.

When I asked him if the meat was ready, he told me that "oh yeah, they're dead and hanging up in the freezer."  Yikes.  I guess this is what it means to get close to the source of your food...  Anyway this means many meat dishes through the winter, or definitely more than I am used to.  Dave's excited.

I also have part of a deer in the chest freezer, which I feel I need to eat because my friend's ex-boyfriend killed the deer, but now they are broken up.  I must eat the evidence of their relationship / breakup!  Time for venison tacos!