#PastaWednesday is here again wooohoo!
I bet you all like pesto, right? But if you are still using the store bought one in your cooking you are missing a lot!! To be honest I didn’t really like pesto until a tried the freshly made on in Italy.
What I am trying to say here is that freshly made stuff is just SO MUCH better and you can make your pesto in less than 5min, plus you can make it a bit different every time, tailor it to your taste and I will show you how. You can use pistachios or almonds instead of pine nuts, you can add spinach like I did here or Swiss chard or kale, you can even swap basil for some other herb you like. It’s also great for batch cooking, you can make a bigger batch at once, freeze it and use it later during the working week when you don’t have that much time for meal prep. Anyway, I think you are going to love this recipe!
Ingredients (for 2 portions)
200g pasta
50g pecorino + some more for serving
50g spinach
30g basil
50g nuts (I went with pine nuts and blanched almonds)
1 garlic clove
150ml olive oil
1tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper
30mil Milk/Cream (optional)
200g chicken breast (2 thin fillets)
30ml pasta water
Method
First, you want to make your pesto – when you blend all the ingredients you will have enough pesto to make this dish two times, feel free to freeze half of it for later.
Heat a small frying pan over a low heat. Cook the pine nuts and almonds until golden, shaking occasionally. Put into a food processor with the basil and spinach, Parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice and garlic clove. Process until smooth and don’t forget to season with salt and pepper.
Season chicken fillets with salt and pepper, one for each portion. I like to take the meat from the fridge 30min before cooking it, especially when grilling because you don’t want the middle to stay raw as it’s still too cold. And we all know if we grill chicken breasts for too long they will become chewy and dry!
Cook pasta of your choice al dente according to the packet instructions, always add salt to cooking water!
Meanwhile, heat a small frying pan over a medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil and grill chicken fillets for 2-3min on each side. Let it rest for 5min before slicing them and serving on top of pesto pasta.
When pasta is al dente don’t rinse it and remember to preserve 30mil of cooking water so you can make a creamy sauce. In the same pan where your pasta was cooking, under a medium heat add 2-3 tbsp of freshly made pesto to your pasta, a splash of cooking water and a splash of milk/cream if you like to make your sauce extra creamy, cook for a minute or two until the sauce reduces, add more liquid if needed of course. Season with salt and pepper, slice chicken fillets and serve them on top of your pasta with more shaved pecorino on top. YUM!
steak & merlot 
Looks awesome
LikeLike