Chicken Pesto Pasta

Ingredients (For One)

  • 2tbsp Pesto
  • 7 Cherry tomatoes (halved)
  • Pasta (Anything with ridges to have the pesto attach)
  • 1 Small chicken breast, 90-100g raw (cubed)
  • Seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic granules)
  • Spring onion/Scallions (chopped for garnish)

Method

  1. Put your pasta on to boil in lightly salted water as per packet instructions/to personal taste
  2. Season the cubed chicken, if you have time always try to do this a little in advance
  3. Heat a frying pan, perhaps with a bit of neutral oil, and put the chicken in to cook
  4. After about a minute add in the halved tomatoes
  5. Once cooked keep the pan on the hob but turn the heat off completely. Add in the pesto and give a good stir. Check the seasoning and make any adjustments as required
  6. Drain the pasta and mix into the pesto chicken

Eating And Storage Tips

You can add to this dish by adding in a little bit of heat either with fresh chilli or dried flakes but be careful to not choose something that clashes too much with the pesto.

Whilst I used green pesto here you could use a more red based pesto and that would work just as well. You might need to choose a different thing to tomatoes though, perhaps some spinach, as red pesto with tomatoes could be a little too much for flavour.

If you want to give it a creamier taste or feel you could add in soft cheese/cream cheese when adding the pesto in or putting a gentle cheese like mozzarella on top. If you wanted to do mozzarella you could also cook the pasta a few minutes less and place it on top before putting it into the oven or under the grill/broiler to melt a little.

If you are really wanting to give it a little extra on top of all the things just mentioned then you could also add small pieces of bacon to it. Depending on the bacon you use you might want to adjust your seasoning levels.

This can be made in bigger batches and stored in the fridge, in an airtight container, for eating the next day but I find it best to then have a small splash of water added and for it to be quickly microwaved to bring back a little bit of moisture. This dish isn’t sauce heavy so the pasta can easily dry out a little in the fridge overnight.