Pollo alla Marengo
Pollo alla Marengo is chicken in tomato sauce garnished with shellfish, mushrooms, onions and scrambled eggs.
In Spinetta Marengo, a small town just outside Alessandria in Piedmont, Napoleon won a decisive battle over Austria in the year 1800. The victory was allegedly celebrated with a sumptuous meal of chicken, scrambled eggs, crayfish and mushrooms, and since then the French and the Italians have debated who invented the dish, which tastes seriously good and can still be found on menus all over Piedmont.
In this version, crayfish have been replaced with lobster, but prawns can also be used, just as cultivated mushrooms are a fine alternative to forest mushrooms.
Ingredients
1 large chicken
4 lobsters
500 g tomato passato
150 ml white wine
150 ml chicken stock
250 g mushrooms
200 g pearl onions
2 cloves of garlic
1 lemon juice
4 eggs
Butter
Olive oil
Fresh basil and parsley
Preparation
Cut the chicken into 6-8 pieces with a sharp knife, sprinkle with salt and pepper and brown the pieces in olive oil for approx. 10 minutes.
Pour the tomato passata over the chicken along with white wine and chicken stock. Add the peeled and chopped garlic.
Let the dish simmer for 45 minutes.
Clean the mushrooms, peel the pearl onions and fry them lightly for approx. 10 minutes. Season with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
Roast the cleaned and peeled lobsters in olive oil with added garlic until they turn red.
Take the chicken pieces out of the pan and let the tomato sauce boil until it thickens. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Put the chicken pieces back in the pan and heat the meat all through.
Melt butter in a pan, beat the eggs and stir them with a fork until they set.
Arrange the pollo alla Marengo on a plate garnished with mushrooms, onions and scrambled eggs. Sprinkle with basil or parsley and serve with toasted bread or fresh fettucine.
A sumptuous preparation of chicken garnished with lobster, scrambled eggs, mushrooms and pearl onions.
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