Rasta Pasta Memories

A pasta dish that has recently caught people's attention is a Jamaican take on Italian cuisine. When it was first created, people associated the colours of this meal with the colours of Rastafarianism, and the shapes of the noodles with dreadlocks, earning the dish the name rasta pasta. I will always associate anything calling itself rasta pasta with a conversation I had in the 90s back when 8-ball and Starter jackets were fashionable and you could still smoke in malls. I was on a 95 heading back to Orleans from the Woodroffe campus of Algonquin with my friend who was instrumental in my creating an hors d'oeuvre. She had noticed that pasta was one of the specialties featured in neon on the sign that wrapped around the Dancing Mermaid restaurant near the Kent St bus stop, and said: "Does that say rasta on that sign?". As her boyfriend at the time was a friend of mine of Jamaican persuasion, I laughed and wisecracked "What, you're seeing a Jamaican guy and you're seeing rastas everywhere now?" Her look of shocked embarrassment egged me on to follow up with "Maybe you guys should go there, have some rasta pasta or something." The look soon turned to angry annoyance when another passenger on the bus joined in the fun saying she'd love a bowl of rasta pasta as well. My friend got back at me by telling our circle of friends that it was I who misread the sign and that she and the woman were the ones having a laugh at my expense. At least now with the recipe below they can have all the rasta pasta they want.

Ingredients

500 g boneless chicken breasts or shredded rotisserie chicken (if you have 2 cups of jerk ckicken, even better)
454 g pasta (fettuccine, penne, or rigatoni can be used)
25 g jerk seasoning (you can use a premade version if you want, or the following recipe)

15 g onion powder
15 g garlic powder
10 g teaspoons cayenne pepper
10 g teaspoons salt
10 g teaspoons ground black pepper
10 g teaspoons dried thyme (or use 5g ground thyme)
10 g teaspoons sugar (or use brown sugar)
5 g teaspoon ground allspice
5 g teaspoon dried parsley
5 g teaspoon paprika
2.5 g teaspoon hot pepper flakes
2.5 g teaspoon ground cinnamon
2.5 g teaspoon ground nutmeg
2.5 g teaspoon ground clove
1 g teaspoon ground cumin
Mix everything in a bowl until it is well combined. Store in an air-tight containter afterwards.

120 g green onions, sliced
120 mL coconut milk or heavy cream
80 g parmesan cheese, grated
60 mL chicken or vegetable stock
30 mL tablespoons vegetable oil, split into two equal portions
3 bell peppers preferably red yellow and green, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions, take it out when it is “al dente”, and set it aside.
2. If you are using cooked chicken, chop it into pieces, toss it with the jerk season, and set everything aside. If you are using raw chicken breast, chop it into pieces, toss it with the jerk seasoning, and cook the chicken in a heavy-bottomed pot with one of the portions of vegetable oil until it's golden and cooked through. Remove the meat from the pot, and set it aside.
3. Pour the remaining vegetable oil into the pot, and saute the bell peppers with the green onions, and the minced garlic and cook until it’s fragrant. Add the coconut milk, the chicken, and the stock in the pot, and let everything simmer for a few minutes or until the sauce thickens. 
4. Taste to see if more jerk seasoning is required, then mix in the parmesan in the sauce and then mix in the pasta. Garnish with chopped chives, green onions, or parsley and serve.