Prosciutto skewered chicken with fried sage leaves

• boneless skinless chicken breasts↗2

  fillets

• slices of prosciutto↗4

  or smoked streaky bacon

• plain flour↗1 tbsp tbsp
• olive oil↗1 tbsp tbsp
• sage↗handful of

  leaves

• butter↗25g g
• dry white wine↗150ml ml
• double cream or crème fraîche↗4 tbsp tbsp
• cooked pasta↗

  to serve

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Put the chicken breasts between two sheets of greaseproof paper and beat with a rolling pin until roughly twice their original size. Lay two rippled slices of prosciutto on top of each breast and secure with cocktail sticks. Dust each breast lightly with flour, then season with salt and pepper. (Can be made several hours ahead up to this point, and chilled.)

2. 2

   Heat the oil in a frying pan, drop in the sage leaves (they should sizzle) and fry for 30 seconds until just crisp. They can burn quickly so watch them. Lift out the leaves with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Add the butter to the pan, let it melt, then fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes on each side until cooked and well browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.

3. 3

   Pour in the wine, stirring well to scrape all the lovely sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the mixture bubble until the wine is reduced by about half. Stir in the cream or crème fraîche, put the chicken back in the pan and heat through. Scatter the fried sage leaves on top and serve with pasta tossed with a little olive oil and some freshly chopped sage leaves.