Chicken, roast tomatoes and homemade pesto pasta

Pasta!!!

Isn’t it the most popular dish in almost all households?! Well! Ok, if it isn’t then look away ?

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This, by far, has to be my kids’ favorite. They, in fact, ❤LOVE, ❤LOVE pasta. Pesto and pasta combination is amazing indeed.

I do alternate the pasta with whole meal one and alternate chicken with tuna.

They just love it, whichever way and no matter how I twist it. ?

This chicken, roast tomatoes and homemade pesto pasta is a pretty much forward dish that can be amazingly nice for a garden, BBQ party, lunch box or take-away for a nice picnic.

To me, it doesn’t matter if hot or cold, this pesto pasta is delicious either way.

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Chicken, roast tomatoes and homemade pesto pasta

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 40 minutes

Servings 5

Author Ramona Sebastian

Ingredients

• 500 g spagetti (dry)
• 500 g chicken (boneless, skinless)
• 300 g cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• salt
• pepper

For the homemade pesto:

• 50 g basil (fresh) roughly chopped, and a few for decoration
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4-5 tbsp pine nuts keep a few to sprinkle over at the end
• 1 clove garlic (grated for ease)
• himalayan salt (pink)
• pepper (freshly ground)
• 30 g parmesan (shredded) leave some aside for serving
• 1 pinch red chili flakes (optional) for serving
• few basil leaves to decorate

Instructions

• Preheat the oven at 200 C.
• In an oven tray place the washed, dried and halved cherry tomatoes (place the cut side up). Drizzle some olive oil, season with salt and pepper and bake for about 15-20 minutes.
• Boil the chicken in a pan with a little salt for about 30 minutes (15 min in pressure cooker). Take out and place in an oven tray and bake for about 10 min to get some nice golden color.
• Place a pan on stove and using the water that chicken cooked in cook the pasta as directed on the package. When ready, take out in a sieve and drain, maybe holding on to a little water for the pasta later.
• While pasta cooks and the tomatoes and chicken bake nicely, take out your food processor and place in almost all of the pesto sauce ingredients (basil, pine nuts, grated garlic salt, pepper). Give them a few good old pulses then add oil little by little (spoon by spoon), whizz a little further until it all becomes a smoother paste/sauce. When you are happy with the texture, add the parmesan cheese and let it whizz for a minute longer.
• In a larger bowl, toss the pesto sauce with the pasta together. Add the retained chicken/pasta water so it does not feel dry.
• Shred the chicken and add to the pasta along with the cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle some parmesan and the chilly flakes (optional) and serve.

Notes

Most of the time unless I run out of it, instead of spaghetti we prefer using linguini - it tastes divine!

Also, pasta can be wholemeal and preferably is to get those as they defo a healthier option.

Pesto sauce, if you do not fancy making it at home, the one that you can buy in jars is pretty good. I just prefer making it at home as the one I normally buy tends to be a little too salty.

The chicken, you can choose to grill it but make sure it is not too dry. Also, left over chicken from a previous night bake is also very very good for a cold salad.

I many times put tuna (canned) instead of chicken and it tastes sublime!