Ohhh my! this is the very best meal I've recently eaten! And it might be prepared in many different variations as there are a few types of pesto :) Another advantage, for those of You, who has little time - some of the ingredients - like pesto - might be bought, ready-made, no need to prepare home-made pesto :) though I do encourage You to try ;)
Recipe for a good basil pesto.
Just one important thing about basil pesto - home-made or ready-made: do not heat it up, as it may change its taste, into bitter, because of the basil, so that you may not like it anymore.
Ingredients:
- 1 packaging of lovage-flavoured pasta
- 1 jar/packaging of ready-made pesto (or see the pesto ingredients&recipe below)
- 500g of chicken breasts
- salt, pepper, oregano (optionally something else to make it more spicy, like cayenne pepper)
- grated cheese
- chopped parsley leaves
Home-made pesto:
Ingredients:
- 25g of fresh basil leaves
- 1/3 small clove of garlic
- 25g of pine nuts or pumpkin seeds or cashew or walnuts
- 10g of 'hard' cheese, (like permigiano, grana padano, pecorino)
- 70ml of olive oil
- sea salt, freshly ground black pepper
- Take a blender, put all the ingredients inside and crush them all into very small pieces. In the end, season with spices.
Preparation:
- Take a pot, put water inside, add a little salt, boil. When boiling, add pasta and boil for around 10 minutes, stiring from time to time (basic pasta preparation).
- Take the chicken, chop into small pieces and put in a bowl. Season with salt, pepper, oregano (and optionally cayenne) and stir/shake, so that it covers all the pieces.
- Take a frying pan, add oil, start heating. Add chicken and fry till gold.
- Strain the pasta, put some on your plate, add some chicken, put pesto on it. Sprinkle with grated cheese*, some freshly ground pepper and parsley leaves.
- Bon Appetit! :)
*If the meal isn't hot enough anymore to melt the cheese, it is ok to add cheese before pesto and put it for a few seconds in a microwave.
