Spinach and ricotta stuffed chicken breast

To prepare ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken breast, start by cooking the meat. Rinse the chicken pieces and heat the oil in a capacious pan, with two peeled garlic cloves 1. Add the spinach and saute for a few minutes, with a pinch of salt 2. Remove from the heat as soon as it softens, then gather with a fork or cooking tongs 3.

Finely chop it on a cutting board using a knife 4 and place in a bowl; add the ricotta cheese 5 and a pinch of black pepper 6.

Stir and leave to one side 7. Cut the chicken in half, remove any bones in the top part of the cut and the cartilage on the bottom. In this way you will have 4 pieces 8. Now use a smooth bladed knife to cut a pocket in the meat, but be sure not to cut all the way to the bottom 9, otherwise the filling will leak out. Do the same with all the other pieces.

Use a teaspoon to fill the pockets 10. Now wrap the pockets with cooking twine, or you can use a couple of toothpicks for each piece 11. Be sure to fasten the cooking twine vertically as well, otherwise the meat pieces will open up during cooking 12.

Now tie a knot 13 to finish preparing your first pocket. Repeat for all the other pieces 14. Take the pan you used before and heat it up on the stove before searing the pockets for 10-15 minutes; this will thoroughly seal them on all sides 15.

Turn the meat over half way into the cooking time 16. Once the time is up, the chicken will be nicely browned; place it on a plate 17 and remove the garlic from the pan 18.

Melt the butter on a lower flame in the same pan 19, then add the flour all in one go 20 and make the roux by stirring with a whisk, just like for bechamel 21.

After 2-3 minutes the mixture will become richer in color; add the cream 22 and the squash tempered with a whisk 23. Leave to thicken for a few minutes. In the meantime, remove the cooking twine 24

and place the chicken breasts in the sauce 25. Add salt and pepper to taste, drizzle the cream over them 26, put the lid on and cook for another 4-5 minutes 27.

The chicken will finish cooking and the sauce will thicken; drizzle it over the pockets once more 28 and your ricotta and spinach stuffed chicken breast are ready 29: all you need to do is enjoy them while they're nice and hot 30!