Chicken Pesto Pasta with Grilled Chicken and Spinach

I love pasta. Period, I love pasta! So, now that I have been maintaining my weight loss, once a month I plan out a really flavorful dish that I can serve with many ingredients that fill the plate other than that carb loading pasta.

To make things easy for weeknight entertaining, I use Pepperonata Pasta (found at Farmer’s Market, Detweillers and their own store in the Chili’s shopping plaza. A container of their pesto makes clean up easier since I don’t have to take out the food processor for homemade pesto.I also found a wonderful red chili oil at the market.

Another find- The Fresh Market will now offer $2.99 boneless chicken breasts every day now so again this dish is going to save some money on the protein side.

Ingredients

For the Chicken:

2 x skinless free-range chicken breasts cut into strips

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

2 sprigs of fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil

4-cloves garlic

Chili oil

8 ripe cherry tomatoes

For the Pasta & Pesto:

1 big bunch of fresh basil

½ cup Parmesan cheese , plus extra to serve

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon

1 clove of garlic

1 package tri color spaghetti or similar pasta from Pepperonata Pasta

French green beans, tips cut and slightly blanched

50 g Parmesan cheese , plus extra to serve

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 cups  fresh spinach

1 cup mini mozzarella balls

1 jar sweet red peppers (marinated-I use Rao’s with pine nuts and white raisins from The Fresh market)

Directions

1. On a large sheet of grease proof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, fennel seeds and the rosemary leaves. Fold over the paper, then pound and flatten the chicken to 1.5 cm thick with a rolling pin (you can use chicken tenders as well).
2. Put the chicken into the frying pan with the grapeseed oil, turning after about 3 or 4 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Sprinkle with chili oil and remove to plate.
3. Add garlic to pan and sauté fresh spinach.
4. Halve or quarter the tomatoes, add the chicken and pasta to the pan with spinach and toss. Add fresh mozzarella balls.
5. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Option: toss in cannelloni beans instead of the chicken

Use Kosher for Passover pasta during Passover for a flavorful meal without the regular flour made pasta.