If you rely on boneless, skinless chicken breasts for fast dinners, but need an idea to turn them into something special, this easy recipe from the 2010 cookbook In A Pinch: Effortless Cooking for Today's Gourmet (Whitecap, $29.95) peps up the mild-flavoured meat and gives it a luxury look, too.

Author Caren McSherry, who runs a Vancouver cooking school, has produced a good-looking collection of recipes, many of them with lengthy lists of ingredients, but others that could prove useful to the cook in a hurry.

On the side, you can go with anything from rice or potatoes and steamed or sautéed vegetables to a tossed or caesar salad and crusty rolls.

Prepare this dish up to a day ahead and refrigerate until ready to bake.

PANCETTA-WRAPPED, ASIAGO-STUFFED CHICKEN BREASTS

Serves: 4.

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts

8 oz. (250 g) Asiago or Swiss cheese, cut in long strips, 6 mm wide

1/4 cup tomato paste (a tube of sun-dried tomato paste is handy to keep in the refrigerator) 12 large fresh basil leaves

6 oz. (175 g) thinly sliced pancetta (substitute lean, strongly flavoured ham, if desired)

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Pound chicken until it is about 6 mm thick. Lay half the cheese strips along one end of one breast. Squeeze half the tomato paste in a thin line alongside the cheese. Place half the basil leaves on top. Roll chicken up, jellyroll fashion. Wrap rolled chicken with pancetta, fastening it to the chicken with toothpicks. Repeat with second breast. Refrigerate until ready to cook.

Insert a meat thermometer into the centre of one of the chicken rolls.

Heat oil in a large, heavy, ovenproof frying pan over medium-high heat and sear chicken rolls, turning until crispy on all sides, about five minutes. Transfer to oven preheated to 375 F for about 20 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 180 degrees F.

Slice crosswise in 12mm slices and serve.