Chicken cacciatore-style pasta

I was going to make this for lunch on Friday but met a friend for lunch at Pho-Viet instead.  One of the upsides of ordering their #31 (noodles, cabbage and tofu in broth) and always leaving hungry is that it left me more inclined to cook something substantial that evening.  Since I still had a carrot, a red bell pepper and some of the $1.99 rotisserie chicken (Steve's lightning-fast lunch breaks during the week had apparently consisted of big chunks of chicken breast ripped off the carcass and gobbled down between calls), I thought it would be easy enough to chop and drop those ingredients, plus some canned mushrooms and black olives, in a saucepan with some crushed tomatoes and herbs and let it do its thing.  And so it went:

2 tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, peeled and sliced
1 red bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tsp dried Italian herbs
1 28-oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 8-oz can of sliced black olives
1 8-oz can of diced portabella mushrooms
2 chicken thigh quarters, cooked, deboned and coarsely chopped

random pieces of chicken breast, cooked, deboned and coarsely chopped
8 oz. Barilla wheat spiral pasta
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add carrot and saute until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.  Add bell pepper and garlic and cook another 3-5 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, herbs, olives, mushrooms and chicken and cook until sauce has thickened and all ingredients are warm, another 5-7 minutes.  Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, bring some salted water to boil in another pot.  Add pasta and cook until al dente, about 9 minutes.  Drain and serve with a generous helping of the sauce over the top on each plate.

Humble confession and word to the wise: this was great the night I made it, but I had the leftovers for lunch on Monday and gave myself a mild case of food poisoning:(  If you use leftover chicken in a casserole or sauce or whatever, immediately freeze any leftovers from that meal.  Oh, well - now we know why I only got a B in microbiology.  Now that I'm feeling well enough to cook again, I'll probably resume my meatless ways so as not to have a repeat occurrence.  More new recipes are on their way!