Welcome back to Unseen Cuisine. I'm Chef Rick, and this is Technique Monday. Last week we spent three episodes learning one complete skill: how to make fresh pasta with your senses. We mixed the dough, we kneaded it, we rested it, we rolled it, and we learned what the dough should feel like at every stage. Well, now it's time to cook with it. We're starting with something bright, fresh, savory, and full of flavor. Today on Technique Monday, we're making fresh linguini with chicken picata. We're pairing our handmade fresh pasta with tender chicken, fresh garlic, lemon, capers, white wine, olive oil, and parsley. But before we can make the picata sauce, there's one more thing we have to do. We have to turn that sheet of pasta that we made last week into linguini. And family, whether you own a pasta machine with a cutting attachment, or or you have as a rolling pin and a knife, you can do this. That's what we're going to learn first. So, let's build our culinary cockpit so we could get everything within reach and then we could cook. Ingredients for the Liguini. Approximately one pound of fresh egg pasta dough, breasted and ready to roll. Flour or semolina as needed for dusting. Kosher salt for the pasta water. One cup of cooking pasta water reserved before draining. Chicken picata. One pound of boneless skinless chicken breast. Kosher salt as needed. Freshly ground black pepper as needed. 2 tablespoons of olive oil to bite it. 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped. 1 tablespoons of capers rinsed, drained, and roughly chopped. A half a teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes to taste. 1 zest of lemon, about 1 tablespoon, juice of 1 fresh lemon, about 2 tablespoons, 1 cup of chopped fresh flat leaf parsley. Now, before we turn on the heat, let's get organized. At your pasta station, have your rested dough, flour or semolina rolling pin, and pasta machine, knife or cutting attachment, and a sheet pan for clean surface holding for the liquini. At your cooking station, have the chicken, olive oil, garlic, capers, crushed red peppers, wine, lemon juice, parsley, salt, and pepper. Place a heat safe measuring cup near the pasta pot because we're going to preserve some of our pasta water. Remember that. Everything has a home. That means once the cooking starts, we're not searching, we're cooking. So, step one, you want to roll and cut the fresh linguini. Divide your rested dough into manageable pieces. Keep the dough you're not working with covered. Roll one portion into a thin, even sheet using a method that we practiced last week. If you're using a pasta machine, start with the widest setting. Pass the flattened pasta through. Reduce the setting gradually, one level at a time, until you have a thin, flexible sheet of pasta. Dust lightly if the dough becomes tacky. If your machine has a Liguini cutting attachment, lightly dust the sheet and feed it through the cutter. Guide the pasta. Don't pull it. Let the machine do the cutting. If you're cutting liguini by hand, lay your finished pasta sheet on a lightly floured surface. Dust the top very lightly with flour or semolina. Loosely fold or roll the sheet over itself. Don't compress it. Using a sharp knife, cut across the folded sheet into narrow strips, approximately 18 of an inch wide. Unroll the strips immediately and separate them gently with your fingers. Tactile cue. Run your fingers through the cut pasta. The strands should separate easy. If they're sticking together, dust them. We're not coating them in flour. We're just using enough to keep them separated. Gather the Laguini loosely and keep it covered while we're preparing the chicken. Step 2. Prepare the chicken. Slice the chicken breast crosswise into pieces, approximately a quarter inch thick. Season with salt and black pepper. Tactile baseline. Before cooking, notice the texture through safe handling. Raw chicken is soft, moist, and flexible. That's our baseline. Once you finish handling the chicken, wash your hands and anything that touched the raw chicken before continuing. Step 3. Start the pasta water. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil. Sound cue. Listen to the water. Small occasional bubbles become steady bubbling. Then you'll hear continuous movement as the water reaches a full boil. Don't put the pasta in yet. Fresh Laguini cooks quickly. Step 4. Cook the chicken. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add half the chicken without overcrowding the skillet. Listen. Sound cue. You want an immediate confidence sizzle. A weak sound means the pan probably wasn't hot enough. Cook approximately 1 to 2 minutes on the first side. Before trying to force the chicken from the pan, gently test it with your utensil. If it strongly resists, give it a little more time. When it releases more easily, turn it. Cook the second side until done and transfer to a clean plate. Texture cue. Cooked chicken becomes firmer than its raw baseline, but it shouldn't be hard and dry. For food safety, chicken should reach an internal temperature of 165. Step 5. Build the picata sauce. Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic, capers, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook for about 30 seconds. Aroma cue. Pay attention. The sharp smell of raw garlic should become warm and fragrant. If the garlic starts smelling harsh or bitter, you're going too far. Now carefully add the white wine. Sound cue. Do you hear that? The wine hits the hot skillet with an aggressive hiss. Your spoon should gently scrape the bottom of the pan and release all the flavorful cooked bits. As the wine reduces, allowed hiss settles into a gentle simmer. Aroma cue. The initial wine aroma you can smell will be sharp. As it reduces, that sharp alcohol aroma softens. Let it simmer for approximately one to two minutes. Return the chicken to the skillet. Step 6. Cook the fresh linguini. Now lower your fresh linguini carefully into the boiling salted water. Stir gently after it enters so the strands don't stick together. Sound cue. The pasta will temporarily quiet the boil. Listen for the water to recover. Fresh pasta doesn't need long cook time. Like dried pasta. Start checking around two minutes. Texture cue. Safely remove a strand and let it cool enough to check. It should be tender, flexible, with a slight resistance when you bite into it. Don't cook fresh pasta by the clock alone. Taste it, feel it, evaluate it. Before draining the pasta, reserve approximately one cup of the pasta water. Step 7. Bring in the dish together. Add the drained ligrini to the skillet, the chicken. Add the lemon zest, the lemon juice, and about half of the parsley. Toss gently. Add a few tablespoons of reserved pasta water. Resistance cue. Pay attention to how the pasta moves. The sauce should lightly coat the ligrini. It shouldn't sit in a watery pool underneath it. If everything feels dry or tight, add another small splash of pasta water. Small adjustments. Taste doesn't need salt. More lemon, more pepper, a little bit more briny caper flavor. And I want you to use the C method. Stop, engage, and evaluate. And finish with the remaining parsley. Fine dining plating. This is where things get real good. Use tongs to gather up the fresh liguini into a controlled nest in the center of a warm shallow bowl. Arrange several pieces of chicken over and alongside the pasta, completely covering it. Spoon a small amount of the lemon caper pan sauce over the chicken and the liguini. Finish with fresh parsley and a light touch of lemon zest. Tactile plating. The plate should feel structured, pasta centered, chicken intentionally placed, sauce controlled, garnish finishing the plate. We made fresh pasta today. So don't bury it. Flavor profile, bright, savory, briny, fresh. Lemon wakes up the palate. Capers bring the acidity and saltiness. Garlic and white wine provide the depth. Parsley brings freshness. And the handmade liguini carries everything. Health notes chicken breast provides lean protein. Olive oil provides monosaturated fat. Herbs and lemon allow us to build substantial flavor without relying only on added salt. Allergies and substitution notes. Traditional fresh egg pasta contains wheat and egg. For alcohol-free version, replace the white wine with low-sodium chicken broth. Adjust the fresh lemon at the end to maintain acidity. Always check package ingredients such as capers and broth for your individual dietary needs. Now, I'm gonna leave you with something. Family, don't make the mistake of drowning this pasta in sauce. Fresh Laguini is delicate. We're coating it, not hiding it. Listen to the chicken when the hits the pan, when it releases, smell the garlic, listen when the wine changes the sound of the skillet, feel the pasta, taste the acidity. That's how you make decisions without waiting for your eyes to give you permission. That's the unseen cuisine method. I'm Chef Rick. Keep listening, keep tasting, keep trusting your senses. I'll see you Wednesday when we take that same fresh pasta foundation in a completely different direction. So, until then, trust your senses, trust your systems, and become the pilot.