Presto! Pesto

Yesterday I decided to expand my culinary horizons and make a batch of pesto. The bay leaves growing in pots on our back deck needed a good trimming, so the time had come for pesto-making.

First I looked up "pesto" at my favorite recipe site, Allrecipes.com. After checking out several of the recipes and reading reviews, I decided to give this one a try, mainly because I had all the ingredients on hand:

Pesto Sauce

3 c. fresh basil leaves

1 1/2 c. chopped walnuts

4 cloves garlic, peeled (I used 6-7 cloves.)

1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese

1 c. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste.

1. In a food processor, blend together basil leaves, nuts, garlic, and cheese. Pour in oil slowly while still mixing. Stir in salt and pepper.

This yielded about 2 cups, maybe a bit more, of rich, green pesto sauce. So now I had to decide what to do with it.

Back to Allrecipes I went, where I found a recipe called "Pesto Pasta and Chicken." This sounded delicious.

Ingredients:

1 16-oz. package bow tie pasta

1 t. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 

bite -sized pieces

Crushed red pepper  flakes to taste (These I left out, opting not to have my Epi-pen on standby, for I'm very allergic to red pepper.)

1/3 c. oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and cut into strips

1/2 c. pesto sauce

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes (I prefer the Marjorie Standish never-fail method of cooking pasta: Add it to boiling water, stir non-stop as it boils for 2 minutes, remove pot from heat, allow to sit, covered, for 10 minutes, and voila! Your pasta if perfectly cooked. Works for all types of pasta.)

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Sauté garlic until tender, then stir in chicken pieces. Season with red pepper flakes (if you're not allergic to it). Cook until chicken is golden and cooked through. I seasoned the chicken with salt and pepper, and that seemed perfect.

3. In a large bowl, combine pasta, chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, and pesto. Toss to coat evenly.

It was delicious! Both Ken and I loved it.