Food: Pesto Pasta

Now, I don't normally post on things that I cook, Bake sometimes but not generally cook but I was proud of this last minute kitchen marvel so I thought I would throw up a post. I made pesto today because I had a bunch of basil that was going bad. It turns out that Pesto is not the horrible difficult monster that my mother always made it out to be.

Pesto:
2 cups Basil leaves
2 and ½ cloves of garlic crushed
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons pine nuts (lightly toasted)
The juice from ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Blend basil, garlic, nuts, and ¼ cup of olive oil in a blender (or cuisinart miniprep plus).

Blend until smooth, add in lemon juice and the rest of the olive oil and the salt and pepper to taste.

Voila! Pesto! I was surprised at how easy it was and how well it turned out. So, since the sauce was so easy I decided to whip up a pasta dish to go with it.

The pasta was really simple, just take:

1 chicken breast
1 recipe of pesto
1 package frozen fresh fettuccini
2 cloves garlic
White cooking wine
1 T Olive oil
1 cup baby spinach leaves
The juice from ½ lemon
2 medium balls of fresh mozzarella cut into small pieces

-Cut up the chicken into small pieces.

-In a frying pan mix chicken, olive oil, and garlic.

-Sauté the chicken, when it starts to sizzle add the white cooking wine and sauté until cooked through.

-Put the chicken aside. Meanwhile, boil water for the pasta and throw it in (fresh pasta cooks really quickly so remember to watch it).

-Once you have drained the pasta, place it in a sauce pan and stir in the chicken and pesto, stir until the pasta and the chicken are coated with pesto, then throw in the spinach and the lemon juice.

-Stir until the spinach is just wilted and then serve with the fresh mozzarella spread over the top of the pasta.