Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta

There's nothing more satisfying to me than a nice creamy pasta. Since I had a lot of pesto leftover from my pesto tilapia, I thought I'd combine the two to make a creamy pesto sauce.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta

1 pound farfalle pasta
1 pound chicken breast, cut into 1 inch pieces
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 red onion, diced
8 sundried tomatoes, chopped
4 ounces fresh spinach
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons pesto

Boil water in a large pot and add pasta once boiling. In the meantime, heat a large skillet on medium high heat. Swirl in a little olive oil. Add chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper, cooking about 8 minutes. Add diced onion and saute another 3 minutes. Add sundried tomatoes and continue cooking. Wilt in spinach and stir.

In the meantime, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan. Add flour and whisk, cooking about 1 minute. Stir in milk and heat until thickens, stirring occasionally. Add parmesan cheese and remove from heat. Stir in pesto.

Add pesto sauce to chicken mixture. Add pasta and stir to combine. Serve with additional parmesan as needed.

I made a simple salad to go with this to get some more veggies and utilize the extra spinach.


Bacon Spinach Salad
4 slices bacon
1/4 cup red onion
2 whole carrots
8 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Sweet onion and poppyseed dressing

Cook bacon in the 350 degree oven about 15-20 minutes, remove and place on paper towel to drain. In the meantim, slice red onion and carrots. Add to a large bowl with fresh spinach and pecans. Crumble in bacon and add desired amount of dressing.